WASHINGTON: Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei will meet with a top security aide to US President Joe Biden in Washington, the White House confirmed on Monday, after the far-right libertarian lunched with former US President Bill Clinton in New York.
The meal with the former US leader, a Democrat largely on the opposite side of the ideological fence from Milei, marked an especially surprising part of the incoming Argentine president’s first foreign trip after winning a run-off vote earlier this month.
Earlier on Monday, the self-described anarcho-capitalist Milei arrived in New Jersey with a small group of advisors, including former central banker Luis Caputo, the frontrunner to be his economy minister, and his campaign manager sister Karina Milei, his office said in a statement.
Upon arriving in the United States, Milei first visited the tomb of a well-known orthodox Jewish rabbi before having lunch with Clinton, according to a statement from the president-elect’s office.
On Tuesday, Milei will meet with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, while his economic advisers are scheduled to meet with senior US finance officials to discuss the president-elect’s economic priorities.
Meetings will also take place with officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Milei’s office previously announced, aimed at explaining Milei’s economic plans, which on the campaign trail included dollarizing Argentina and shuttering its central bank. Argentina is the IMF’s largest debtor nation as it struggles to tame inflation approaching 150%.
President-elect Milei vows ‘end of Argentina’s decline’
Milei will take office on Dec. 10 at a time when over two-fifths of Argentina’s population is in poverty and a recession looms for South America’s second-largest economy.
Earlier on Monday, Reuters reported that a previously announced visit to Buenos Aires from former US President Donald Trump - seen by many as much closer to Milei ideologically - is unlikely to happen, according to a source close to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
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