MILEI AND MERCOSUR
addressing last weekend’s Mercosur summit in the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguazú, President Javier Milei affirmed that the regional trade bloc “needs an institutional and integral reform” while maintaining: “Adaptability is an asset, not a threat.” Accompanied by his foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, Milei reproached Mercosur for having “no common market, no free circulation and no macroeconomic coordination” while not being “sufficiently open to the world” but instead “an oversized and inefficient bureaucracy.” He further insisted: “Integration must be at the service of free trade, not bureaucracy,” describing the free-trade agreement with the European Union, postponed until January after decades of negotiations, as a missed opportunity. Moving onto the fight against organized crime and drug-trafficking, Milei quickly called Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a “narco-terrorist” while hailing United States actions against him, calling for the release of border Guard Nahuel Gallo and congratulating opposition leader María Corina Machado for her Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Also congratulating “my great freind” Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast on his runoff triumph and highlighting Bolivia’s incorporation into Mercosur, Milei thanked the bloc for its support of Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claims. The summit’s conclusions included a special statement not only reaffirming Argentine sovereignty but also rejecting “unilateral measures” linked to the exploration or exploitation of natural resources in the disputed area.
MILEI BACK HOME
Upon his return from the Mercosur summit, President Javier Milei told a Sunday night interview that he would not veto the 2026 Budget if approved by the Senate while making it clear that the Executive Branch would be making the necessary adjustments to uphold a zero deficit. The next evening he hosted a asado barbecue for his Cabinet at the Olivos presidential residence,clad in his YPF overalls,to draw a balance of the outgoing year and to begin charting the agenda for the New Year,starting with the final negotiations for the 2026 Budget,which was due to enter the Senate yesterday – these negotiations are to be spearheaded by presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo. The event was attended by all nine ministers (three of them new).
Worth a look