Published November 21, 2023
On Monday, following the announcement of the results of the presidential elections in Argentina, the foreign policy advisor to President-elect Javier Milei, Diana Mondino, spoke on behalf of the Liberty Advances (LLA) alliance against Argentina’s participation in BRICS, where the country was admitted following the group’s summit in August.
Argentina is free to accept or reject the invitation to join BRICS, Prof. Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s BRICS Sherpa, told Sputnik Africa, commenting on the possible suspension of Argentina’s participation in BRICS by the incoming government president-elect Javier Milei. According to the official, the BRICS alliance “will not be any poorer” for the absence of any one country of the six new members.
“Of course, we would very much welcome Argentina being part of BRICS, being a leading country in Latin America. And that is why leaders felt that the request by Argentina to join would add value to BRICS. But at the same time, should Argentina not take up the invitation, you still have five other new members that will add value to BRICS,” he said.
Sooklal emphasized that BRICS has already established itself as a “major platform of the Global South championing issues of the developing world”. He noted that over 60 countries attended the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa and unanimously declared that the global South “must work together in championing a more equitable, representative and just world order.”
On Monday, Diana Mondino, foreign policy adviser to Argentinian President-elect Javier Milei, told Sputnik after the announcement of the results of the presidential election on Monday that the Liberty Advances (LLA) alliance, from which Milei was nominated, now sees no point in Argentina’s participation in BRICS.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov responded to Mondino’s position, expressing Russia’s wish to comprehend Buenos Aires’ stance on joining BRICS post the election. Ryabkov stressed the need for clarity and said that Moscow awaits signals from Buenos Aires, emphasizing the necessity of understanding the new administration’s viewpoint. He rejected the idea of a replacement for Argentina, insisting on the importance of ascertaining Argentina’s position first.
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SOURCE: www.en.sputniknews.Africa
RELATED: Argentina is no longer joining Brics, says top aide to Javier Milei, right-wing presidential winner
Published November 21, 2023
- ‘We do not understand the interest’ in the bloc of leading emerging markets including China, despite membership being poised to start from January
- But new government unlikely to disrupt ties between Buenos Aires and Beijing given major financial deals already agreed upon, analysts say
Argentina is no longer joining Brics following the victory of self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei in the country’s presidential election on Sunday, a top aide said on Monday.
Diana Mondino, Milei’s principal adviser on foreign affairs, said Argentina would not proceed with plans to join the association of leading emerging markets comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “We do not understand the interest” in the bloc, Mondino told Russian news agency Sputnik News.
“We do not understand … what Argentina gets out of it at this moment. If later it turns out that there is an advantage, of course, we will analyse it.”
Argentina’s Brics candidacy was the only one in the Americas supported by the group’s founding members during its last summit in August. But Milei during his campaign pledged to decline membership, which should come into force from January 2024.
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SOURCE: www.amp.camp.com
RELATED: BRICS Invitation Puts Argentina in a Tough Spot
Argentine President Alberto Fernández (right) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva prepare for photos as part of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit hosted in Buenos Aires on Jan. 24. GETTY IMAGES
Published September 21, 2023
Ahead of a presidential election, debate in Buenos Aires reveals the mounting challenges of multi-alignment.
When leaders of the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced at their 15th summit in Johannesburg that they would invite six new members to join the bloc, representatives of those countries responded with enthusiasm. Mohammad Jamshidi, Iran’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs to the president, called the invitation to join BRICS a “historic achievement and a strategic victory.” Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed celebrated the invitation as a “great moment” for the east African nation. United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan underlinedthe group’s important role in global affairs and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he looked forward to working with BRICS to “raise the voice of the global south.” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan underlined the contributions his country could make to the grouping, though he said his government needed to look at the details before making a final decision. Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández, for his part, hailed the BRICS invitation as a “great opportunity” that would “strengthen” his country.
Yet while the governments of Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates can safely be expected to officially join the BRICS grouping on Jan. 1, 2024, the situation in Argentina is different. South America’s second-largest nation will hold presidential elections on Oct. 22 and Fernández’s successor will be inaugurated in December—and will have to quickly decide whether to accept the BRICS grouping’s invitation. While the governing party’s candidate Sergio Massa (whose bloc came in third in the recent primaries) would no doubt follow Fernández’s lead and join, Javier Milei and Patricia Bullrich—the candidates whose coalitions came in first and second during the primaries—quickly vowed to reject the invitation. Milei, a far-right maverick candidate surfing an anti-establishment wave, has been fiercely critical of China and Brazil and categorically criticized the BRICS grouping, saying: “I defend liberty. China, Putin, and Lula don’t.” On another occasion, Milei said China had an “assassin government.” Meanwhile, the center-right Bullrich promised to reject the BRICS invitation, citing both the war in Ukraine and Argentina’s troubled relationship with Iran, in the context of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that remains unresolved until this day—adding Argentina still had “an open wound” with Iran.
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SOURCE: www.foreignpolicy.com
