WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei will meet with a top security aide to U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, the White House confirmed on Monday, after the far-right libertarian lunched with former U.S. President Bill Clinton in New York.
The meal with the former U.S. 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 U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, while his economic advisers are scheduled to meet with senior U.S. 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%.
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 U.S. 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.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Jorge Otoala in Buenos Aires; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by David Alire Garcia & Simon Cameron-Moore)
