Buenos Aires Herald 
Argentine President Javier Milei held his first bilateral meeting with China’s Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning. The encounter took place within the G20 world leaders’ summit agenda in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The meeting was scheduled for 10:20 a.m., but started at 10:40. At 11:30, Milei posted a picture of the pair smiling and shaking hands following their sit-down. Details of what was discussed have not yet been made public.
According to a communiqué published by Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Milei and Xi talked about a building a “constructive cooperation” between the countries and broadening their commercial ties.
While the Chinese president showed interest in increasing trade with Argentina, Milei expressed a desire to diversify and increase exports to China. Both leaders agreed to strengthen commercial ties between their countries and to develop “joint projects” to benefit them.
They ratified existing trade and financial agreements and vowed to nourish their bilateral relationship, the communiqué added. The two presidents also invited each other to visit their respective countries, although no scheduled date was offered.
Milei attended the meeting alongside his sister, Presidency Secretary Karina Milei; Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein; Economy Minister Luis Caputo; Central Bank President Santiago Bausili; and Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, among others.
While Milei was expected to be one of the main dissenters at the G20 summit, he ended up backing the key documents published by the assembled leaders — although expressing his “partial” dissent with some issues.
On Monday, Milei signed a global alliance against poverty and hunger promoted by Brazil, host country of the summit, despite initial reports that Argentina would be the only one to abstain from backing. He also signed the world leaders’ final document. In both cases, Argentina was allowed to express the points it didn’t agree with despite backing the documents as a whole.
Despite his cold encounter with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Milei’s stance at the summit so far has been very different from his most strident interventions on the global stage. Over the past few weeks, the country has rejected several pacts and resolutions regarding Indigenous communities’ rights, as well as women and girls.
Before returning to Argentina on Tuesday afternoon, Milei was also scheduled to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
His meeting with Xi — and, to a degree, with Modi — shows an attempt to tend bridges with a leader with which he had been harshly critical of in the past.
Milei rejected joining the BRICS economic bloc of developing countries — made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — as soon as he took office last December.
At the time, Milei had said he didn’t want to trade with BRICS member countries because they were “communist.” Milei later mended his relationship with China after negotiating the renewal of a currency swap for US$5 million until 2026.
Before the August 2023 primary elections, Milei had said he would not trade with China if elected. During an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in September 2023, he said he would not trade “with any communist,” mentioning China, Russia and Brazil.
During the campaign, Milei also described the Chinese government as a “murderer” and claimed the country’s people were “not free.” After he won the election, China warned him that severing ties between the countries would be a “serious mistake.” Milei started softening his tone after becoming president in hopes of renewing the currency swap.
Over the last couple of months, however, Milei has taken an unexpected U-turn, describing China as a “very interesting trade partner.” During an interview with TV host Susana Giménez in September, he said he was “very pleasantly surprised” with the country.
Milei also said he would travel to China for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit in 2025, although an exact date for his visit has not yet been announced.
