Dirco said it had not received confirmation that Milei would miss the G20 Summit
The G20 Summit is set to be without another of its firebrand headliners after reports of a possible snub from across the Atlantic.
Reports from Argentina state that President Javier Milei has opted not to attend the summit, scheduled for next weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Milei is known for his abrasive style, openly mocking opponents and having made good on promises to cut a government he believed to be bloated and inefficient.
Milei’s withdrawal
The potential snub would add to the withdrawal of all United States (US) delegates, as confirmed by President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Sources in Milei’s G20 planning team over the weekend told Spanish-language publication Perfil that the Argentine leader would not be coming to South Africa.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and G20 sherpa Federico Pinedo are believed to be attending in Milei’s absence.
Milei was present in Rio de Janeiro last year for Brazil’s hosting of the G20. The source told Perfil that the snub could negatively affect Argentina’s standing within the group.
“We are also the least important country in the G20. If we follow any reforms of the group, such as those the US might push for, we could be left out,” the Argentine source said.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation told The Citizen on Wednesday morning that no confirmation of Milei’s withdrawal had yet been received.
‘Make Argentina great again’
Milei’s party recently won 41% of the vote during Argentina’s midterm elections held in late October, just under 10% ahead of the party’s closest rivals.
He has led Argentina for almost two years, and as of May, had cut roughly 48 000 jobs from the public sector and merged at least 11 ministries with similar portfolios.
Streamlining the government has been seen by Milei as a way of cutting unnecessary expenditure.
Milei was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this past week, where the Argentine spoke at the Conservative Political Action Campaign (Cpac).
ALSO READ: Trump’s G20 summit boycott triggers political storm in South Africa
Trump and Milei have openly expressed admiration for one another, with Argentina recently benefiting from a $20 billion currency swap deal.
“The socialists in our country accuse us of giving up sovereignty. They understand sovereignty as destroying the national currency and multiplying poverty and misery,” Milei said at Cpac.
“We will follow Trump’s example in this beautiful country and make Argentina great again,” Milei concluded.
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