Argentina's Milei seeks foreign policy, IMF reset in Washington trip
investing.comBy Jason Lange and Rodrigo Campos
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Argentina's president-elect Javier Milei met on Tuesday with top U.S. officials in Washington and his economic team huddled with IMF officers as he seeks to formulate a plan to reshape the country's foreign policy and lead its economy out of crisis.
Milei told reporters as he left the White House that his meeting had been «excellent.» He had been scheduled to meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council's senior director for the Western Hemisphere.
«We talked about the economic and social conditions in Argentina at the moment,» Milei said in brief comments before he was whisked off in his official car.
Milei, a far-right libertarian who takes office on Dec. 10, won election this month pledging radical reforms such as dollarization and «shock» austerity to fix Argentina's economy. Inflation is near 150%, foreign currency reserves are in the red and a recession is looming.
His foreign policy, meanwhile, is unabashedly pro-United States and pro-Israel, with a cooler stance on top trade partners Brazil and China.
«Milei is a unicorn, the leader of a major Latin American economy who is ostentatiously pro-American,» said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at Washington-based think-tank the Wilson Center.
While Milei's incoming team has looked to moderate earlier criticism of China and Brazil's leftist government, the U.S. trip ahead of his inauguration underscores his priorities.
He has also pledged not to join the China-led BRICS trade group. That's a sharp change in approach from outgoing center-left President Alberto Fernandez, who visited Moscow as Vladimir Putin was readying his invasion of
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