The new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, wants to break close ties with Russia

Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, a maverick politician with radical right-wing views who won nearly 56 percent of the vote in the second round of Argentina’s presidential election, has previously said he will sever close ties with countries such as Russia, China and Brazil, citing disagreement with their governments’ policies, Reuters reports. He also said that he supports Ukraine in the war with Russia, and the US and Israel are Argentina’s main partners.

Milei also expressed his support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and stated that he sees the United States and Israel as Argentina’s main partners.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it had taken note of Argentina’s President-elect Javier Mila’s statements about Russia, but that it wanted to maintain strong ties with Buenos Aires.

How did Russia react?

“We took note of a series of statements that Mr. Milei made during the election campaign, but we will focus and judge him mainly by the statements he will make after the investiture. We support the development of bilateral relations with Argentina.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Argentina’s outgoing center-left government maintained close ties with Russia, importing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and pushing to join the Moscow-backed BRICS group of nations.

How Miley came to power in Argentina

Argentines elected Javier Milei as the country’s new president on Sunday, banking on an outsider with radical right-wing views to repair an economy plagued by triple-digit inflation, a looming recession and rising poverty.

Milei, who took advantage of a wave of voter anger against the mainstream politics, won by a larger margin than expected. He obtained 56% of the votes, compared to just over 44% for his rival, the Peronist Minister of the Economy, Sergio Massa, who admitted defeat. “The model of decadence has come to an end, there is no way back.

Monumental problems await us: inflation, lack of jobs and poverty. The situation is critical and there is no room for half-hearted measures”, declared Milei in a provocative speech, given after learning the result, in which he also acknowledged the difficulties he is facing.

Editor: Andreea Smerea