MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei authorizes US Southern Command to patrol Argentine southern sea in strategic shift

The initiative is part of the US Department of War's Program 333, the framework through which Washington seeks to deepen its military ties with allied countries

Javier Milei's government on Wednesday announced the signing of a letter of intent with the United States for joint patrolling of the South Atlantic over the next five years, in a military cooperation agreement that ratifies Buenos Aires's strategic alignment with the Donald Trump administration and that has triggered alarms over Argentine sovereignty in its maritime spaces. The agreement, signed by the US Southern Command and Argentine Navy authorities, involves the supply of US technology to modernize the South American country's naval equipment and, at the same time, authorizes the participation of US forces in patrolling the Argentine southern sea.

The initiative is part of the US Department of War's Program 333, the framework through which Washington seeks to deepen its military ties with allied countries, and is being developed under the official title “Protecting Global Commons Program.” Cooperation has already begun with the delivery of multispectral sensors, command and control systems, communications, and data link equipment for an Argentine Navy B-200M Cormorán aircraft. Assistance will continue with two Textron B-360 ER MPA aircraft for surveillance, vessel detection, and maritime traffic identification, vertical takeoff drones operable from offshore patrol vessels, and a simulator for P-3C Orion aircraft.

The Argentine Ministry of Defense emphasized in a statement that the agreement will allow the incorporation of “new operational capabilities, technology, and personnel training” and will improve “the capacities of detection, monitoring, and surveillance of maritime spaces” and “the response to illicit activities and threats.” The US Embassy described the agreement as a “five-year strategic alliance to defend global commons and strengthen regional security.”

The designation of maritime spaces as “global commons” generated a strong opposition reaction. Carlos Bianco, government minister of Buenos Aires province and a Kirchnerist figure, said that “the Argentine sea is not a global common” and that “it is a space where Argentina has the obligation to exercise its own jurisdiction and safeguard its resources.” The La Cámpora organization, for its part, accused Milei of “giving away strategic information about the South Atlantic” in a maritime zone it described as one of the most productive and diverse in the world.

The agreement is taking shape in a sensitive week for the geopolitics of the South Atlantic, still marked by the leak of an internal Pentagon memorandum that suggested reviewing US diplomatic support for British sovereignty over the Falklands as retaliation against allies that did not back the military offensive against Iran. The agreement broadens the US Southern Command's operational presence in a region sensitive to Argentina's sovereignty claim over the archipelago disputed with the United Kingdom, an area that also encompasses the waters surrounding the Falklands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands. Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has aligned Argentine foreign policy with the Trump administration: he positioned the country in favor of the United States and Israel in the war with Iran, authorized US military exercises on national territory, and personally visited the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz as it sailed off the Argentine coast last month. The Peronist opposition, led by Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof —one of the figures expected to challenge Milei in the 2027 presidential election— has repeatedly warned about the risks this alignment policy poses to the country's strategic autonomy.