MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina sends note rejecting BRICS entry

Milei prefers the United States and Israel as partners

The Argentine Government of President Javier Milei this week sent a note announcing that the South American country would not be joining the BRICS group on Jan. 1 as agreed upon with the previous administration of Alberto Fernández.

Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni said Milei's letter mentioned that at this point it was not deemed “opportune the incorporation of the Argentine Republic to the BRICS as a full member as of January 1, 2024.”

Under Milei, Argentina's foreign policy “differs in many aspects from that of the previous government,” the President also wrote.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates are to join the current BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on Jan. 1 to form a bloc encompassing a significant proportion of the world's GDP and population. Moscow regretted Buenos Aires' decision but admitted Argenntina's “sovereign right” to make it.

“We are not going to align ourselves with communists,” Milei had declared during his campaign while underlining that the United States and Israel were to be his main allies.

Also among Milei's possible reasons for rejecting the bloc is that the “BRICS bank” (officially the New Development Bank) headed by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff does not allow financial bailouts for broken countries.

In this scenario, the Libertarian leader must have feared a political alignment behind the financial one. His preferences are rooted in a diffuse feeling of moral and aesthetic superiority on the side of his partners of choice, which Milei has repeatedly uttered.