Argentine President Javier Mille welcomed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Buenos Aires this Friday to “deepen ties” and “increase trade” between the two countries. Casa Rosada. The visit by US diplomatic chief Joe Biden, a top official in the Democratic Party's government in Argentina after the G-20 foreign ministers' meeting in Brazil, came hours before Miley flew to Washington to take part in the conservative action of the conference. Policy, a giant gathering of the American far-right, featuring former President Donald Trump.
Neither Blinken nor the Argentine government publicly mentioned the coincidence until a question from an American reporter. “I can't talk about their future meetings, that depends on President Mili, I can only talk about ours, which was very productive,” Blinken said. Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino has not confirmed that Miley will meet Trump in Washington, but the two will speak at the forum on Saturday. Miley, who did not appear in public after the meeting, told reporters gathered at the Casa Rosada that “Argentina has decided to turn to the West, to progress, to democracy and, above all, to freedom.” That was the tone of the next conference given by Blinken and Mondino.
Mondino elaborated that the Argentine government believes the two countries can “demonstrate shared values, fundamentally democracy and freedom.” Blinken has maintained this position and thanked the far-right Miley's government for its “strong condemnation” of the Hamas attack on Israel last October. 2022, and a reference in the Organization of American States (OAS) to “defend democratic values” against the authoritarian regimes ruling Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
“Argentinians can count on us to stabilize their economy,” Blinken said, “and perhaps more importantly, Argentina has what the world really needs, and we want to be its partner as it feeds and supplies the world.” . Regarding Argentina's intention to dollarize the economy, the best plan to encourage MLI to curb inflation, which reached 254% year-on-year in January, Blinken said he was waiting to “hear any plan” in this regard, but he did. Don't want to rate it. The foreign secretary said it was “a decision that depends on Argentina”.
Milei's agenda between the IMF and Donald Trump
On Thursday, Miley received the International Monetary Fund's runner-up position, celebrating the new Argentine government's “significant efforts” to “restore macroeconomic stability.” Gopinath stayed in Buenos Aires for two days, where he also met Economy Minister Luis Caputo and central bank officials. A press release issued by the IMF on Thursday night said his visit was “ideal”, but the fund's deputy managing director, Miley, insisted the government “must work pragmatically to gain social and political support”. Durability and Effectiveness of Reforms.”
This is not the first time the Fund has asked Miley to negotiate with other Argentine political circles. At the end of January, after the government re-implemented the payment plan agreed by Peronism to return the 44,000 million given by the IMF to Mauricio Macri's government in 2018, the finance also celebrated the economic adjustment, but Miley asked the waist. Agreed to his economic plan in Congress, those days were debating the massive scrapping legislation the president had introduced early in his term. The legislation collapsed, leaving Miley without emergency legislative powers or nearly 400 reforms that included the sale of 40 state corporations, but the overhaul continued.
The Miley government ended its first full month with a fiscal surplus, the first seen by an Argentine government in more than a decade, since devaluation, which pushed inflation to 25% in December alone and 20% in January. This was achieved after cuts to pensions, social assistance and subsidies, while the country is beginning to see tension on the streets. This week, the Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina calculated that poverty rose from 49.5% in December to 57.4% in January. There are about 27 million poor people in a country of 46 million people, the worst figures since the 2002 crisis. The IMF responded to the conflict that has begun to grow on the streets of Buenos Aires. “Given the short-term stabilization costs, it is essential to make sustained efforts to support vulnerable sections of the population and to protect the real value of social assistance and pensions,” he asked Miley in his statement.
After this Friday meeting with one of Biden's most powerful officials, Miley will travel to the United States, where on Saturday he will be one of the highlights of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the largest gathering of American ultra-conservatives. The days began with the visit of Salvadoran President Nayeb Buchel, and tomorrow its main course will be Spain's far-right leader Santiago Abascal and its biggest star Miley: former US President Donald Trump.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS América newsletter here and get all the important information about current events in the region.
