Argentine President Javier Milei will be inaugurated on December 10th, but we are starting to see what his administration will look like.
So far, one becomes well impressed by a double aspect of his recent movements: on the one hand, he has markedly softened his blistering rhetoric, discarded the histrionics, but – on the other hand – he is unwavering in some of the most revolutionary aspects of his campaign program.
Milei hasn’t shied away from themes such such as the dismantling of the Argentine Central Bank, and also the rerouting of the foreign policy away from the Peronists China-centered world view towards closer ties to the US.
So it’s not surprising that it arose now that ‘Argentina won’t join the China-led emerging market bloc BRICS under the presidency of Javier Milei’.
This came from his chosen Foreign Minister, in a sign of significant foreign policy realignment.
No ingresaremos a los BRICS.
— Diana Mondino (@DianaMondino) November 30, 2023
Benzinga reported:
“’We won’t go into the BRICS’, Diana Mondino, Milei’s pick for Foreign Affairs Minister, wrote on the platform X Thursday. Speaking to journalists at an event earlier in Buenos Aires, Mondino also cast doubts about the value of the group, which includes China and Brazil, Argentina’s top two commercial partners.
‘If the BRICS are already our primary trading partners, what’s the difference?’, she said.
Mondino’s remarks follow Milei’s foreign policy vision that Argentina should strongly align its interests to those of the US. While Milei’s team has walked back some of the aggressive rhetoric against China and Brazil that the candidate showed during the campaign, not joining the BRICS group confirms a significant policy change that moves Argentina away from efforts to strengthen emerging countries blocks.”
Argentina’s current Peronist government, led by failed President Alberto Fernandez, lobbied hard to join the trade bloc, until is gained the invitation to join next year.
Milei has a clear mandate from voters, after he became the most voted for since the return of democracy, securing a resounding victory with 55.65% of the votes.
Bloomberg reported:
“The international atmosphere seems to be in their favor, with what was once dismissively described as a mere local phenomenon now making waves as far as the White House. This new era of Argentine diplomatic relations owes much to the pragmatism of the incoming Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, who is set to assume office on Dec. 10.”
Mondino: “The invitation to the BRICs has not yet been accepted. The BRICS are still not a commercial bloc; for now, it is more akin to a political alignment, and in Argentina, we hope to achieve multilateralism, and not align ourselves with one group of countries or another.”
Argentine stocks show signs of recovery, with values rising between 30% and 60%.
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