
Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi visited the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz of the United States Navy in international waters off the Uruguayan coast on Saturday, in a new chapter of the Southern Seas 2026 regional deployment, following the steps of Argentine President Javier Milei and Chilean President José Antonio Kast, who had toured the same vessel in previous weeks. The invitation was extended by the US ambassador in Montevideo, Lou Rinaldi, and the delegation was transported from Carrasco Air Base No. 1 to the carrier's deck aboard a Grumman C-2 Greyhound military aircraft of the US Armed Forces.

US troops began joint maneuvers on Tuesday with their Argentine counterparts as part of the “Atlantic Dagger” exercise, one of the broadest joint military operations between the two countries in decades, alongside the deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in South Atlantic waters. The simultaneous presence of special forces on Argentine soil and a US naval strike group off the Atlantic coast forms part of a single package authorized by President Javier Milei through Necessity and Urgency Decree 264/2026, after Congress failed to take up a 2025 bill to enable the entry of foreign troops.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), flagship of the United States Navy for more than five decades, will arrive in Uruguayan waters in the coming weeks as part of the “Southern Seas 2026” deployment, the US Fourth Fleet announced.