Milei Is Gleefully Playing the Role of Spoiler at Lula’s G-20

(Bloomberg) -- Even before he landed in Rio de Janeiro for Brazil’s Group of 20 summit, Argentina’s Javier Milei had already started raining on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s big party.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Argentine diplomats have thrown a wrench into last-minute talks meant to reach consensus on the communique world leaders are set to sign Tuesday, according to multiple government officials from various G-20 nations. They even began backing off support for ideas they had previously signed off on in previous meetings, including a tax on billionaires, the people said.

In the end, negotiators managed to salvage the draft communique by adding a footnote saying that Argentina doesn’t agree with some of the points, four officials said, requesting anonymity because the statement isn’t yet public.

Still, the drama has frustrated counterparts facing the fact that Milei has little regard for multilateral institutions like the G-20, and few qualms about irking world leaders with whom he disagrees. Some diplomats have begun quipping that Milei was effectively turning the G-20 into a G-19, while arguing that his foreign policy approach has left the South American nation increasingly isolated in Rio.

The irritation with Argentina is hardly limited to Brazil’s delegation, according to a person familiar with the situation who said that Germany, Italy, France and other nations have also complained about its approach to the discussions.

But its stance poses particular problems for Lula, the leftist whose efforts to use the G-20 to showcase Brazil as a major player on the global stage are already teetering after Donald Trump’s election victory shifted leaders’ focus to preparations for the return of the all-consuming US president-elect.

The presidents of the historically-allied nations have been locked in a public battle since last year, when Lula deployed a team of campaign advisers to work for Milei’s election opponent and the Argentine lumped his neighbor into a group of “communists” with whom he wouldn’t work.

Armed with competing economic visions and opposite views on climate change, social issues and the role of the government, the pair have yet to hold a bilateral meeting and even made sure to stand on opposite sides of an official photo at a G-7 meeting in Italy earlier this year.

Emboldened by the early success of his radical economic agenda at home, Milei also sees himself as a leader of what he calls a new global order that runs counter to the “woke” agendas of leftist leaders like Lula and institutions like the UN. He has openly campaigned for right-wing opposition parties in Spain, and this year picked a conservative rally popular among supporters of Jair Bolsonaro — Lula’s predecessor and arch-nemesis — for his first visit to Brazil.

The US election result has only further fueled his cause, giving him a close ally in the world’s largest economy. Lula, by contrast, effectively endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of her defeat.

Brazilian officials, in particular, see Milei’s willingness to muck up talks around the communique as an effort to further cozy up to the president-elect, with some involved in the G-20 negotiations saying that the Argentine seemed to be acting as a saboteur working on Trump’s behalf.

Argentina’s foreign ministry declined to comment.

But while Milei clearly senses momentum is on his side, analysts and observers have cautioned that it carries substantial risk of leaving Argentina isolated on the world stage. France’s Emmanuel Macron planned to deliver a similar warning during a visit to Buenos Aires ahead of the G-20 that was meant to convince Milei to help preserve the international order after Trump’s election win.

Since taking office last December, Milei has rapidly turned his nation into a radical supporter of the US and Israel, shifting its foreign policy drastically. That shift consolidated and accelerated late last month when he fired Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, saying she had betrayed the country for voting against Cuba’s economic embargo at the UN.

Mondino hadn’t been a member of Milei’s inner circle in months, but she played instrumental roles in patching up relations with Brazil — Argentina’s largest trading partner — and Spain, which yanked its ambassador from Buenos Aires amid a dispute between Milei and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez earlier this year.

She also led a successful visit to China as Argentina negotiated the renewal of a much-needed credit line from Beijing, overcoming the impact of Milei’s aggressive criticism of the communist government led by Xi Jinping during his campaign.

Even before she was fired, signs that Milei had begun imposing his foreign policy vision on Mondino’s ministry had started to emerge. Earlier in October, Argentine negotiators suddenly refused to sign a statement on female empowerment that had the support of all other G-20 members.

After her departure, Argentina rejected UN proposals defending the rights of Indigenous peoples and combating violence against women and girls. It was the only nation to vote against the resolutions.

--With assistance from Ilya Arkhipov and Eric Martin.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.