MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei lands in LA for gathering with world personalities

Milei will be the only sitting head of state attending the event also featuring Bill Clinton, Theresa May and Elon Musk among others

Argentine President Javier Milei arrived in Los Angeles Sunday to participate at Milken Institute's global conference too be staged Monday at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills bringing together a series of world political and business leaders. It is Milei's fourth trip to the United States since winning the elections and third since he took office.

 Among those attending gathering will be tycoon Elon Musk, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Ilan Goldfajn, former Colombian President Iván Duque, former British Prime Minister Theresa May, and US Presidential advisor Chris Dodd.

For Milei, the only sitting head of state at the event, it was also the first trip aboard the presidential ARG 01 aircraft, purchased by the Argentine government during the administration of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) and which the Libertarian administration had planned to sell but changed its mind after it was decided that commercial flights needed to be skipped out of security concerns, particularly following the South American country's explicit siding with Israel in the ongoing Middle East crisis.

The ARG 01 is a Boeing 757-256 manufactured in 2000 that underwent upgrades in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2010. It has an executive configuration seating up to 39 passengers, with two private and two guest quarters, all with private showers and toilets, plus two offices and a lounge. All seats can be converted into beds. The aircraft is powered by two Rolls Royce RB211 engines.

After touchdown, Milei once again became verbose on social media: ”I am very amused by those 'economists' who historically have been liberticides and advocated for all kinds of control (especially in the external sphere) who, in the face of formal proposals that invalidate the hypothesis of an appreciated peso, take refuge in answering “el cepo”. Poor people...,“ he wrote on X.

Milei is expeceted to address the ”Shaping a Shared Future“ theme during a conversation with Conrad Kiechel, Executive Director of Events and Global Programming of the Milken Institute. ”I am going to talk about growth economics, which has a concept called convergence. This means that developing countries grow faster than developed countries, and sooner or later, they catch up with them”, explained Milei.

Later Monday, he is scheduled to meet with Musk in what will be their secone encounter following the Argentine president's visit last month to the Tesla factory in Texas. With Musk, the idea is to move forward with a lithium investment plan in the north of Argentina and the deployment of the Starlink satellite communication company.

One on one encounters with fellow Economists Georgieva and Goldfajn are not on the agenda but should not be ruled out, according to media reports in Buenos Aires.

The President's entourage was made up of Presidential Secretary Karina Milei; Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse; Economy Minister Luis Toto Caputo and Argentina's next Ambassador to Washington DC Gerardo Werthein.

Milei is also to meet with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, to discuss with the head of football's governing body the idea to promote private entities running clubs in Argentina.