Is Biden backing Argentina's Trump? US offers Milei support on IMF, lithium
Business
Two sides also discussed how the South American nation could benefit from the IRA
BUENOS AIRES (Web Desk) – The US champions the cause of democracy and lectures others on democratic principles while speaking out against the far-right. But when it comes to the non-European countries and the Third World, these principles are set aside.
Latin America is a great example of how the US foreign policy works. History is proof from Chile to Brazil and other nations. Why dictatorships and far-right aren’t a problem for the United States remains an open secret.
Read more: Argentina's peso, Pakistan's rupee, depreciation and IMF
As the Biden administration talks about the threat posed by the return of Donal Trump in 2024, it is backing another Trump – the one elected as president in Argentina. How and when? Well! The answer is provided in a following report by Reuters.
A US delegation gave its support to Argentine President-elect Javier Milei over talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and developing its lithium sector during a meeting in Buenos Aires on Saturday, a White House official told Reuters.
Read more: Dollarisation: Argentina's Milei informs IMF how he wants to divorce peso, adopt dollar
Juan Gonzalez, adviser to US President Joe Biden and the National Security Council's Western Hemisphere senior director, said the talks, a day ahead of Milei's inauguration, were "very positive" and focused on the country's embattled economy.
Argentina is struggling with inflation nearing 150 per cent, while over two-fifths of the population is in poverty. Its $44 billion IMF programme has skidded off track, central bank net reserves are deep in the red and a recession is looming.
Read more: Dollar pull effect: How a weaker currency makes you hostage to dollar
Milei is set to roll out a series of measures to rein in state spending after his inauguration, a "shock" therapy plan which his backers hope will stabilize the economy, but which is likely to be painful for Argentines at least in the short-term.
"I think priority number one is the economic challenges that Argentina is facing," Gonzalez told Reuters in an interview in Buenos Aires hours after meeting with Milei, adding the country needed space and time to get its house in order.
"Argentina needs to fix those challenges," he said, adding that the grains producing country also needed to come to an agreement on its economic plan with IMF staff.
"We've just been trying to encourage dialogue ... and encourage a constructive outcome between Argentina and the IMF."
The current IMF programme, which replaced a failed 2018 deal, has increasingly wobbled as Argentina's economic crisis has worsened, a trend that drove the rise of right-wing outsider Milei, a libertarian economist and former TV pundit.
Gonzalez said that the delegation had discussed lithium with Milei, including the country's hope to benefit from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which it currently does not as it is not a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partner.
He also said the United States was willing to support Argentina, the world's no 4 producer lithium, expand beyond production of the key electric battery metal.
"Certainly Argentina is a source of lithium, but there is no reason that Argentina should not be refining and moving up on the value chain of lithium, and we want to help," he said.
Asked about a potential deal to facilitate Argentina buying used US F-16 jets, he said the two sides were "having discussions", without giving further details.
Milei, who has pledged a pro-US foreign policy and been critical of China, is set to be sworn in Sunday with dignitaries expected including Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Right wing former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, who met with Milei on Friday, will also be there.
Gonzalez said there was no meeting confirmed with Zelenskiy, who wants to bolster support for Ukraine's 21-month-old war against Russia, but that an informal discussion was likely with the US delegation head, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
"I think on the floor of the inauguration, there'll be an opportunity to talk. I'm sure she'll seek him out," he said.
