Immediately after being elected President of Argentina, Mr. Javier Milei made a number of moves showing that the new government will attach importance to relations with both the US and China.
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| Under Javier Milei, Argentina will maintain relations with both superpowers. (Source: Getty Images) |
Specifically, right after Mr. Milei was elected President of Argentina, Ms. Diana Mondino, who is expected to become the new government's Foreign Minister, met with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Xiaoli. She conveyed Mr. Milei's invitation to President Xi Jinping to attend the inauguration ceremony on December 10.
In response, Ambassador Zhou handed Ms. Mondino a letter from President Xi Jinping congratulating Mr. Milei on his victory, hoping that the two countries would continue to promote cooperation for mutual benefit.
This is a significant change from his unfriendly statements towards China during the election campaign, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning warning that downgrading bilateral relations would have a negative impact on Argentina.
According to Ms. Mondino, cutting off relations with China as well as Brazil is “absurd”.
With the US, Mr. Milei announced that he would visit this country and Israel before the inauguration. In a phone call with US President Joe Biden on November 22, the two sides discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict. Mr. Milei praised the White House boss's role in promoting a temporary ceasefire between the two sides and releasing hostages in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, the two sides also discussed a number of other issues such as food and energy. However, the content of the discussion did not mention the amount of money Argentina owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the dollarization of the economy.
For his part, Mr. Biden affirmed that he would continue to support Buenos Aires. Notably, former US President Donald Trump also sent his congratulations and wished to visit Argentina soon. During the election campaign, Mr. Milei repeatedly mentioned and praised Mr. Trump.
Commenting on Buenos Aires' foreign policy in the coming time, Ms. Modino said that Mr. Milei's administration intends to implement "modern and liberal diplomacy".
Accordingly, the above foreign policy will break away from the old ideology, replaced by pragmatism, with the goal of developing the economy and promoting the South American country's exports. This requires Buenos Aires to have good relations with both superpowers.
The new government's first foreign policy moves are beginning to reflect that direction.
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