Frustrated with US, Argentina’s Milei seeks rapprochement with China

Argentine president, who had criticised China, now praises it as a ‘very interesting commercial partner’ and announces January Beijing trip

Reading Time:2 minutes

Argentine President Javier Milei smiles during the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy, on June 14. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:31am, 5 Oct 2024Updated: 9:51am, 5 Oct 2024

Argentine President Javier Milei, who harshly criticised China during his election campaign, has announced plans to visit Beijing in January 2025, signalling a potential shift in his approach to the Asian superpower.

In a television interview this week, Milei described China as a “very interesting commercial partner” and said he was “positively surprised by China” – a stark contrast to his earlier rhetoric, in which he referred to China as an “assassin” state while vowing to prioritise relations with Western allies.

Milei expressed gratitude for China’s renewal of currency swap contracts, which he said enabled Argentina to meet its obligations to the International Monetary Fund.

In June, Beijing agreed to renew tranches of currency swaps worth 35 billion yuan (about US$5 billion) with Argentina’s central bank until July 2026. At the time, the government in Buenos Aires stressed that the measure would be “crucial” to managing the country’s balance of payments flows.

“We had a meeting with the ambassador [Wang Wei],” Milei recounted. “The next day, they unblocked the swaps.”

Any warming in Milei’s ties with Beijing would be a significant development in the battle for influence in Latin America between China, which has invested an estimated US$155 billion in infrastructure projects in the region since 2005.