Buenos Aires Herald 
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva derided the decision by his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei to skip Monday’s Mercosur summit as “immense nonsense.” It’s the latest in escalating tensions between the president and the leader of Argentina’s main trading partner.
“It’s immense nonsense for a president of a country as important as Argentina to not participate in a meeting with Mercosur,” Lula told reporters after the meetings held in Paraguay. “It’s sad for Argentina.”
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou also criticized Milei earlier on Monday for his absence at the regional trading bloc’s presidential summit, insisting that “if Mercosur is so important, all presidents should be [at the summit].”
Following recent posts on X in which he called Lula “corrupt” and a “communist,” Milei made his first visit to the neighboring country as president over the weekend to speak at a conservative rally led by Brazil’s former hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in Brazil’s 2022 presidential election and faced a coup attempt in January 2023 by Bolsonaro’s supporters — 60 of which have come to Argentina in an apparent bid to evade prosecution.
Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni cited “scheduling issues” last week when the Milei’s decision to skip Monday’s Mercosur summit in Paraguay was announced. The event would have been the first formal meeting between the president and Lula, who has said he wants Milei to apologize first.
Foreign Minister Diana Mondino attended the presidential summit instead and according to local media spoke briefly with Lula before the summit began. The Foreign Ministry did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment. It did repost a photo of Mondino, Lula, and Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira by Brazil’s Foreign Ministry: “Before the Mercosur summit, President Lula reaffirmed the importance of the Brazilian-Argentine relationship to Foreign Minister Diana Mondino.”
—Reuters/Herald
