Argentine President-elect Javier Milei’s foreign minister-designee has announced that Argentina will not be joining BRICS, despite Xi’s personal letter to Milei.
The announcement Thursday by Diana Mondino marks a reversal of a key decision made by the outgoing government that was seen as pulling Buenos Aries ever closer to China’s orbit. It also comes despite a personal letter Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping wrote and had hand-delivered to Milei last week.
The incoming Milei government’s position on BRICS has been closely watched. On the campaign trail, Milei was a harsh critic of China’s political system. By contrast, his opponent, Sergio Massa, a minister in charge of economic affairs in the outgoing government, welcomed China’s increasing footprint in their country with open arms, even joking about a new republic under the name of “Argenchina,” Bloomberg and other media have reported.
BRICS — an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — is increasingly seen as a geopolitical group led by Beijing that seeks to expand its influence and reshape the international order.
Last year, Argentina’s ambassador to China disclosed that Xi had personally extended an invitation for Argentina to join the group. The invitation was made official at the most recent BRICS summit, held in August in Johannesburg, South Africa, where it was announced that the memberships of Argentina, along with Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, would take effect on January 1, 2024.
Christopher Ecclestone, a London-based strategist and specialist on Argentina, told VOA that from Beijing’s perspective, the invitation to join BRICS amounted to the equivalent of “you’re now one of us.”
A letter hand-delivered
The outgoing Argentine government, led by President Alberto Fernandez, whose term ends in a little over a week, openly embraced the invitation and is seen as publicly pro-Beijing. Milei, who won a landslide victory against the left-leaning Massa, is known to have compared the Chinese regime as “killers” or assassins who go after those who wish to live freely. Milei also repeatedly said his government would distance itself from such regimes.
Last week, though, a message Milei posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, thanking China’s Xi, had some wondering where he stood, now elected, concerning foreign policy toward China.
“I thank President Xi Jinping for the congratulations and good wishes he sent me through his letter. I send you my most sincere wishes for the well-being of the people of China,” Milei wrote on November 22, above a full-page letter translated into Spanish addressed to him from Xi, from Beijing, dated November 21.
Beneath the full-page translation can be seen what presumably was the original letter written in Chinese, with Chinese wording “Chairman Xi Jinping” at the top of the stationery. Xi is only addressed by his communist party title, general secretary, and/or his national title, chairman, inside China.
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