Argentina’s Milei pivots to pragmatism in first talks with China’s Xi after playing spoiler at G20

LA PAZ, Boliva — Last year, then-presidential candidate Javier Milei declared Argentina would not “make deals with communists” in China or Brazil, calling their leaders “murderers” and “thieves” in a bid to channel the populist energies of Donald Trump and other global far-correct icons into a winning political communication.

But Tuesday, President Milei found himself at the throng of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping and vowing to boost trade with the Asian powerhouse, a day after his economy minister signed a preliminary agreement to export Argentine natural gas to Brazil.

Milei even acquiesced to a joint declaration endorsed by globe leaders late Monday despite his earlier attempts to play spoiler to the G20 host, Brazil’s left-wing president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva who was once called by Milei a “corrupt communist.”

The final moments of the summit revealed Milei’s more pragmatic streak, coming as a shock after the irascible president sought to undercut various international initiatives — withdrawing Argentine negotiators from the U.N. climate summit, casting the only “no” votes on two U.N. resolutions, one supporting Indigenous rights and another advocating for an complete to violence against women, and roiling negotiations at the G20 summit.

Argentina has also dramatically reshaped its foreign policy in line with its challenging-correct allies in Italy — with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni headed to Buenos Aires on Tuesday to spend more period with Milei — and in Israel.

On Tuesday, Andrea Tenenti, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission operating along Lebanon’s southern border, told reporters in Geneva that Argentina had decided to withdraw its peacekeepers from the force, known as UNIFIL. He did not declare why, but Israel has repeatedly requested that peacekeepers leave the area since the military’s Oct. 1 invasion of southern Lebanon. Despite Israeli attacks on peacekeepers, UNIFIL has vowed to remain put and none of the other 47 troop-contributing countries has pulled out.

In the history few days, Argentine resistance to the joint G20 communiqué concentrated on clauses related to the taxation of the super-wealthy and regulation of online talk, diplomats said. Argentine delegates also sought to block language about gender equity and references to the U.N. 2030 agenda on sustainable advancement, which Milei has decried as socialist.

Critics in Rio saw the Argentine president as a saboteur. Supporters back home cheered Milei as a chief of the “recent globe disorder.” Fresh off a trip to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where he ranted against socialism and rubbed shoulders with the president-elect and tech billionaire Elon Musk, Milei initially seemed immune to such concerns in Rio.

Milei’s office issued a harsh statement citing his objections to the G20 declaration. But the president ultimately signed onto it under enormous international pressure.

“Argentina is not a great power and it is in a very challenging circumstance economically,” said Roberto Goulart Menezes, a professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia. That pressure, he added, was “enough for Argentina to finally reduce its opposition.”

During Milei’s first-ever conference with Xi on Tuesday, the leaders discussed their “current trade and financial ties” and “desire to continue exploring recent opportunities to expand and enhance,” the Argentine presidency said in a statement, along with a photo of the presidents sharing a warm handshake. It said the leaders had invited each other to visit.

With Argentina highly reliant on China as a economy for its soybeans and other crops, the cordial tone made obvious that the crisis-stricken South American country has no desire for relations with its second-largest buying and selling associate and crucial financial lifeline to further deteriorate.

A statement from China’s foreign ministry said Xi expressed his growth for Milei’s “willingness to continue deepening bilateral cooperation,” and praised the “amiable relations” between the nations.

China has maintained strategic assets in Argentina, including stakes in lithium mines and a space station in Patagonia. Earlier this year, former Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, whom Milei recently fired, led a successful visit to China to patch up relations strained by Milei’s colorful insults (“Would you trade with an assassin?” he asked on the campaign trail last August, accusing China of killing dissidents).

After Mondino’s trip, Beijing in June resumed a funds swap deal worth billions of dollars that boosted Argentina’s depleted reserves.

On Monday, as negotiations over the G20 draft grew increasingly tense, Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Brazilian vigor Minister Alexandre Silveira signed a memorandum of understanding that offered a recent and significant source of returns to liquid assets-strapped Argentina.

The agreement to work toward shipping 30 million cubic meters of natural gas to Brazil from Argentina’s Vaca Muerta, a vast shale oil and gas field in Patagonia, over the next five years, “might have helped” Milei sign the joint G20 statement, Silveira told reporters.

But it did nothing to dispel the chill between the leaders of South America’s largest economies, who have opposite views on climate transformation, social issues and the role of governments.

A set of official photographs that splashed across the front page of a local newspaper Tuesday showed Lula and other government leaders clasping hands amicably in sharp contrast to the Brazilian chief’s photo-op with Milei — both men standing stiffly, a space between them despite protocol demanding they shake hands, looking like they’d rather be anywhere else in the globe.

As with Lula, Milei alienated major buying and selling partners like Spain and Colombia by attacking their leftist leaders over the history year. Some experts terror that Trump’s election has further emboldened Milei and other far-correct political figures to abandon U.N. commitments and ambitious multilateral agreements on issues like climate transformation.

“Milei has already taken a pro-Trump stance, thinking … that the G20 could be emptied by President Trump,” said Goulart Menezes, the international relations specialist.

Yet, he cautioned that “making Argentina’s foreign policy conditional on the upcoming president of the United States” carries risks.

“Argentina is putting itself in a position of international isolation,” he said.

Indeed, at the traditional G20 household photo — taken for a second period Tuesday because U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to display up to the first due to a scheduling mishap — Milei was the only chief missing.

There would be no third attempt.

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Associated Press reporters Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Eléonore Hughes and Mauricio Savarese in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this update.