By Lisandra Paraguassu and Elizabeth Pineau
As world leaders on the G20 summit in Brazil are bracing for the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the middle of worldwide affairs, one head of state within the room has given them an early style of a well-recognized, iconoclastic right-wing type.
Denying local weather science, dissenting on gender equality and blasting greater taxes on billionaires, Argentine President Javier Milei, recent off assembly Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, is spoiling for a battle with the worldwide consensus.
Whereas Milei celebrated with the president-elect in Florida, his nation’s prime diplomats spent final week in Rio hashing out a fragile consensus with G20 friends round a 9,000-word joint assertion for last approval by heads of state this week.
Fellow diplomats have been stymied when the Argentine negotiators stated they acquired a name from their president so they might be hardening their resistance to beforehand agreed language on tax cooperation, in response to individuals concerned within the talks.
“It looks like the place of Argentina is now to create issues,” complained one European diplomat.
Argentine diplomats relented after days of marathon talks. However heads of state obtained to listen to straight from Milei on the summit about his objections to their shared communique’s requires progressive taxation, gender equality and embrace of the United Nations’ sustainable growth objectives, in response to individuals within the plenary debate.
A spokesman for Milei didn’t reply to a request for remark.
He struck a defiant tone on social media as nicely, repeating an earlier message on the X platform on Monday: “I am not a politician, nor do I aspire to be one. Similar to President Trump I needed to step into this putrid swamp as an act of self protection.”
Quickly he could also be echoing not simply political rhetoric, however main coverage selections.
After a prolonged personal debate with Milei forward of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron got here away anticipating Milei to desert the Paris local weather settlement if Trump follows via on his menace to do the identical, a French official stated.
At U.N. local weather talks final week, the Argentine delegation left the negotiations on orders from Milei, a world warming denier. He steered away from a working session on sustainable growth throughout the G20 summit on Tuesday, stated an individual within the room.
From the beginning of the summit, Milei made clear he was not there to make pals.
Arriving early Monday at Rio’s Trendy Artwork Museum, he greeted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who’s internet hosting the assembly, with a chilly handshake. He clutched a folder to his chest, ruling out the customary hug amongst pleasant Latin American leaders.
Milei, a right-wing libertarian, has solid himself as a frontrunner of the Latin American proper, in the identical mildew as former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has lengthy blasted Lula as a corrupt communist.
In distinction to his greeting with Lula, Milei reposted a video on social media displaying the nice and cozy welcome he gave Bolsonaro and his sons at his presidential inauguration in Buenos Aires.
He additionally reproduced a message by a supporter who praised his overseas coverage: “From Mar-a-Lago to the G20 in Rio, his management is strengthening ties with the principle worldwide actors.”
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
