MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina applies for NATO global partnership

Petri (L) met in Brussels with NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana

Argentina's Defense Minister Luis Petri Thursday filed a request from President Javier Milei's government to become a “global partner” of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Earlier this week, Petri went to Denmark to sign the purchase of 24 second-hand US-built supersonic F-16 fighter jets.

Petri delivered Buenos Aires' letter at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels where he met with Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana. During the encounter, Petri pledged to continue “working to recover the links that allow us to modernize and train our forces to NATO standards,” in line with Milei's foreign policy.

”I met with Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General of NATO. I presented him with the letter of intent expressing Argentina's request to become a global partner of this organization,“ Petri wrote on X. ”We will continue to work on recovering links that will allow us to modernize and train our forces to NATO standards,“ he added.

In Buenos Aires, Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni, who has just been promoted within the federal administration's ranks, underlined that joining NATO would allow Argentina ”to increase its military and defensive capabilities through multinational exercises and advanced technology, as well as to participate in debates and strategic decisions.“

Thus, Argentina would ”join a group of countries already accessing the benefits of participating in this world alliance, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, etc.“

In January 1998, the United States named Argentina a major extra-NATO ally to secure military and economic cooperation privileges between the two countries.

NATO's only Latin American ”global partner” is Colombia, admitted in 2017. Other such allies are Australia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, and Pakistan.

In addition to the Romanian Geoana, Petri met with NATO's Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Javier Colomina of Spain.