MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei skipping Ukraine's peace conference and meeting with Macron

Milei will be returning to Spain for the first time after the diplomatic clash with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

After contradicting rumors circulating in Buenos Aires over the past few days, it was reported that President Javier Milei would attend the G7 Summit in Italy, in addition to a trip to Spain.

 However, his appearances at a peace conference in Switzerland sponsored by Ukraine plus a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron are not going to happen. Instead, he will go to Germany.

The presidential ARG-01 aircraft will leave Buenos Aires on June 13 for Italy, returning two days later. Then Milei will fly to Spain on June 20 and from there he will fly to Germany to get homeward on the 22.

Milei was invited over as an observer to the G-7 Summit in Borgo Egnazia, an ancient village on the Adriatic shore, by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The event should give the Libertarian head of state the chance to reach out to leaders of the world's main powers. The G7 is made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also been invited.

Despite Milei's good rapport with fellow rightwinger Meloni, his trip was in doubt given the numerous scandals he is facing on the domestic front, particularly the ones involving Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello over irregularities distributing food to the needy and hiring outsourced staffers given exorbitant wages amid layoffs.

After the G7, Milei will return to the country on Saturday 15 and will leave again on Thursday 20 for Madrid to attend the Freedom Dinner where he is to be presented with an award from the Juan de Mariana Institute. This trip comes in the aftermath of his confrontation with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez who pulled Spain's Ambassador from Buenos Aires in response.

On June 22, Milei is due in Hamburg, Germany, to receive the Hayek medal “for the fight for the noble cause of freedom, a battle that Milei has presented at the academic level and now at the political level.” Given Milei's presence in that country, a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz is being brokered, according to Foreign Ministry sources in Buenos Aires.

With this itinerary, Milei would be dodging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace summit scheduled for June 15-16 at the Burgenstock Resort in Switzerland. The Swiss-hosted gathering on the Ukraine conflict has been touted by Kyiv and its Western backers as the most realistic way of resolving the conflict with Russia, which has been excluded from the event. Moscow has described the gathering as a “scam” to trick neutral nations into supporting Zelensky.

Despite inviting some 160 foreign delegations, countries such as China and Brazil have already announced they would not be attending and others may follow suit shortly.