“We welcome President Milei’s statement earlier this week that Argentina will purchase second-hand US-made F-16 fighters from Denmark that provide the Argentine Air Forces with a low-cost, high-performance multi-role aircraft.”
The message was published on X by the State Department’s political-military affairs sector in Washington.
In the last few hours, Denmark signed a letter of intent to sell 24 F-16 fighters to Argentina, after the United States authorized the sale.
To give a measure of the importance of the deal, European countries are under pressure to offer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Around 45 have already been promised by Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium.
Ukrainian pilots have received training and Ukraine is expected to begin using them in July in the war against Russia.
With this, the US arms giants, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, which produce the F-16, will sell new models to European partners and will have won the spare parts and maintenance markets in Ukraine and Argentina. .
Because of the Falklands war in 1982, to this day the United Kingdom maintains a blockade on arms sales to Buenos Aires, which was respected by Washington.
However, the US position apparently changed after the election of Javier Milei, who began to establish a carnal relationship with the Americans.
The drama regarding the purchase of new Argentine fighters had been going on for years and the country had even investigated Russia and China as possible suppliers.
One of Washington’s reasons for approving the sale would have been precisely to avoid any business in the field with the Chinese.
Chinese J-10 fighters are seen as potential competitors to the F-16s supplied by the US to Taiwan.
CYBERSECURITY AND WATERWAYS
Recently, the Milei government upgraded Argentina’s relations with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to exchange information and planning in the Argentine section of the Paraná-Paraguay waterway.
The waterway, which originates in Brazil, will eventually connect São Paulo to the Prata basin.
It is the main exit route for exports from Paraguay and Argentina.
The agreement governing the waterway, signed by Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, does not prevent this type of cooperation.
The US embassy in Argentina announced the upgrade to the agreement, which is from 2021, on March 7:
Recognized for its wealth of knowledge, comprised of thousands of engineers and experts, USACE is eager to facilitate knowledge exchange, training and sharing of experiences. The responsibility of the General Administration of Ports in supervising a waterway that is fundamental to trade in Argentina and neighboring countries highlights the importance of this partnership.
The opposition in Argentina asked the government for information about the possible presence of US military personnel along the waterway.
Here too, Washington’s objective is to prevent that, in the event of privatization of the waterway in Argentine territory, any Chinese company wins the competition.
Yesterday Argentina signed an agreement with the United States to address cybersecurity in the country.
Defense Minister Luis Petri explained:
The country’s digital defense was also built in cooperation with all the actors who led the digital transformation process in the world. This agreement allows us to better defend ourselves against persistent threats that exist in cyberspace.
STRATEGIC AGREEMENT
After receiving the nickname “Argenchina” due to its deep economic cooperation ties with China, Buenos Aires made a 180-degree turnaround in its foreign policy.
Last week, Javier Milei’s chief of staff, Nicolás Posse, received the director of the American Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, to discuss a common agenda: combating the influence of China, Iran and drug trafficking in Latin America.
Posse will also meet with the head of US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, in April.
In May, the nuclear aircraft carrier George Washington will pay a visit to Argentina, although it is not part of the United States Fourth Fleet, but is based in Japan.
This is a message to China, since the aircraft carrier would be part of any conflict involving the Chinese and Taiwan.
SPEARHEAD AGAINST THE LEFT
The Argentine president refused to join the BRICs and has hit hard at the continent’s left-wing leaders, such as Gustavo Petro, Nicolás Maduro and Manuel Lopez-Obrador.
The Argentine embassy in Caracas currently houses Venezuelan opposition leaders who say they are persecuted by Maduro.
At the beginning of the year, Buenos Aires allowed the US to take away a Boeing from a Venezuelan company that had been arrested in the Argentine capital at Washington’s request.
The US government claimed that the plane was the result of a transaction between Iran and Venezuela that violated unilateral US sanctions.
In response, Nicolás Maduro banned Argentine planes from entering Venezuelan airspace.
Argentina has formalized its adherence to Chinese New Silk Road infrastructure projects, but everything indicates that it will let the agreement die.
As Forum reported, a Chinese company recently abandoned work on two hydroelectric plants in southern Argentina due to a lack of agreement with the Milei government. The Chinese also had plans to renew the country’s railway network.
