Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian president-elect, said he had a “very comfortable” meeting with advisers to US President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday, the first step of what is likely to be a crucial relationship for the cash-strapped South American country.
Milei, a first-term congressman, ran an insurgent hard-right campaign promising to punish Argentina’s political elites and cut spending amid its worst economic crisis in two decades, winning praise from Donald Trump, the former Republican US president.
But support from the Democratic Biden administration will be key in the coming weeks as Milei enters negotiations over Argentina’s troubled $43bn loan from the IMF, in which the US is the biggest stakeholder.