Beyond the scandals and outbursts that he usually stars in, in international politics Javier Milei has a clear direction and points, precisely, very north of Argentina. His alignment with the United States is intended to be total, to the detriment of the influence of China and the commitment to multipolarity that dominated the country’s geopolitical agenda in recent years. In less than six months of Government, his moves on the global board are accumulating in the same direction and this week two more were added: while Milei concluded his fourth visit to the United States this Friday since he became president in December, more than 10,000 kilometers from there, in waters south of the Province of Buenos Aires, the Argentine and American armed forces were carrying out joint military exercises.
“This is returning to the world, this is revaluing our forces,” the Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, enthused on his social networks, who exhibited himself, like Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, aboard the North American aircraft carrier USS George Washington. The ship, one of the largest in the world, with a crew of almost 5,000 sailors, powered by two nuclear reactors and with the capacity to carry forty aircraft, arrived in the Argentine Sea within the framework of the exercise called Southern Seas 2024, which also includes activities with military forces from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Ecuador. At the latitude of the coastal city of Mar del Plata, the Gringo-Gaucho II operation involved the participation of seven vessels of the Argentine Navy and aimed to promote “interoperability” between both naval forces: transfers of personnel and cargo, communications, tactical formations, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine exercises.
“This mission strengthens the partnership and fosters mutual understanding,” highlighted the US ambassador in Buenos Aires, Marc Stanley. The diplomat, who arrived on the ship by helicopter, like Milei’s ministers, considered that the shared naval exercise shows the “commitment” of the United States “to regional security and cooperation.”
The United States has made explicit its purpose to confront and contain the advance of China in Latin America. In the Argentine case, the southern path for North Americans seems more than paved. Milei expressly said it in an event shared with the head of the Southern Command, Laura Richardson, last April, in Tierra del Fuego: “I want to announce a new foreign policy doctrine for Argentina,” she proclaimed. “Our alliance with the United States, demonstrated throughout these first months of administration, is a declaration to the world that, after decades of bombastic speeches and spurious pacts, Argentina has decided to resume the leading role that it should never have abandoned. .” At that same event, the far-right president announced his project to build and manage, together with the United States, a naval base in Ushuaia, in the extreme south of the continent, a base that Argentina had already begun to develop autonomously.
Even before taking office as president, Milei has been adding gestures of adhesion to the United States. Last November she presented her plans to the White House. In December, she presented the country’s formal resignation from joining the BRICS group, the bloc made up of China, Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil that had agreed to incorporate Argentina. In February, she received the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken; In March she visited the country with the director of the CIA, William Burns; in April General Richardson was there. As president, Milei set foot on US territory four times, although he did so to participate in meetings with conservative organizations – also with Donald Trump – and to meet with businessmen. His last visit ended this Friday, when he left the city of San Francisco to give the present this Saturday at the inauguration of the re-elected president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
The northward turn of foreign policy has been compared to the so-called “carnal relations” that Argentina maintained with the United States during the 1990s, under the neoliberal government of Carlos Menem, “the best president of the last forty years.” according to Milei.
“But in the 90s there was a situation of unipolarity. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States dominated the world stage. Today there is a situation of multipolarity,” distinguishes the Peronist leader Agustín Rossi, former Minister of Defense. “For Argentine interests, automatic alignment with the United States is a serious mistake. Today it is necessary to establish political relations with all nations, we do not have to confront important trading partners like China or India.” Rossi questions in particular the project of a base shared with the United States in Ushuaia: “It distances us from the possibility of sustaining our claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, no one is aware that the United Kingdom is the main political and military partner of United States,” warns the former minister. “But, in addition, it implies senselessly surrendering the relative power that the geographical situation over Antarctica and the Strait of Magellan gives us. “It is a key area of Argentine territory.”
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