Argentina has officially rejected joining the BRICS community of states. The new right-wing populist President Milei announced this in a letter to the member states. Instead, they want to intensify bilateral relations.
The Argentine government is foregoing the South American country’s inclusion in the BRICS group of emerging economies from January. The ultra-liberal President Javier Milei formally declared the rejection in a letter to the member states Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as Argentina’s Foreign Minister Diana Mondino confirmed in an interview with the newspaper “La Nación”.
The letter is dated December 22nd and was published on Friday. In it, Milei says: “As you know, the foreign policy stance of the government that I have headed for a few days differs in many cases from that of the previous government.” For this reason, “some decisions made previously will be reviewed.”
Milei was sworn in as the new president at the beginning of December. He won the election with radical demands for an economic and political turnaround.
BRICS expansion planned
At a BRICS summit in August in the South African city of Johannesburg, the expansion of the BRICS group to include six new members was surprisingly announced. In addition to Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia should also join the alliance of important emerging countries on January 1, 2024. Argentina’s then President Alberto Fernández welcomed the inclusion given his country’s geopolitical and economic challenges.
It was an ideological and practical decision, Mondino said. “The aim of BRICS is to trade with countries with which we already have agreements,” she added. Milei’s government would therefore work to “intensify bilateral relations” with the five BRICS members, the letter said.