MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei promotes a summit of right-wing presidents outside existing regional bodies

Milei held a bilateral meeting with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, at the Carondelet Palace, in the first official visit by an Argentine president to Quito in nearly two decades

Argentine President Javier Milei is working to convene a summit of right-wing leaders from across the Americas outside existing multilateral organizations, though no date has been set. The initiative comes amid a series of trips that took him this week to Ecuador and Colombia.

Milei held a bilateral meeting on Thursday with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, at the Carondelet Palace, in the first official visit by an Argentine president to Quito in nearly two decades. The two signed six cooperation instruments: an automotive trade protocol, agreements on air connectivity and tourism, an extradition treaty, cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, cyberdefense, and a joint declaration against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, providing for information sharing and technical coordination.

The extradition treaty replaces the 1933 Montevideo Convention in the bilateral relationship and must complete domestic approval procedures before taking effect. It will not apply to cases already under way. The governments also agreed to prepare a bilateral cooperation program for 2027-2029.

On the diplomatic front, Noboa reiterated Ecuador's support for Argentina's sovereignty claim over the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and called for the dispute to be settled through peaceful negotiations. Milei thanked him for that position. The archipelago is a British Overseas Territory; in a 2013 referendum its residents voted overwhelmingly to retain that status.

Trade runs at a deficit for Ecuador. Between January and May 2026 it exported 129.7 million dollars' worth of goods to Argentina and imported 374.5 million, leaving a negative balance of 244.8 million, 11.6% lower than a year earlier, according to Ecuador's central bank. The narrowing reflects a sharper drop in imports than in Ecuadorian sales.

The Quito agenda included a wreath-laying at Independence Square and a meeting between Milei and representatives of Argentine automotive chambers, while Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno took part in the opening of an economic forum. Noboa and Milei then traveled together to Cali for the inauguration of Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, with whom the Argentine leader was scheduled to hold a private meeting. He was also due to meet there with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

The trips follow his appearance at the Liberal Party convention in São Paulo, where he backed Flávio Bolsonaro's candidacy, and at Keiko Fujimori's inauguration in Peru. Quirno confirmed this week that the Argentine government is organizing a summit of right-wing presidents in Buenos Aires this year.

Relations between Milei and Noboa have had their ups and downs. In 2024, in an interview published by The New Yorker, the Ecuadorian president sharply criticized his Argentine counterpart, remarks he later softened.

For Argentine sociologist Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, the region's new right-wing governments share affinities with Milei but also have their own ambitions for influence. Whatever Milei's personal ambition, he said, he will find that no one is waiting to be led by him, adding that Latin America is marked by a leadership vacuum because the decisive interlocutor for every country remains the United States.