Milei wants Argentina’s US 'strategic alliance' to be ‘state policy’

President Javier Milei says he wants to make the "strategic alliance" with the United States led by ally President Donald Trump a "state policy."

In a state of the nation address to Congress on Sunday night, the La Libertad Avanza leader said "the South Atlantic is the strategic battleground of the coming decades," arguing Argentina must be a "player" in the region.

"Trade routes, natural resources, maritime sovereignty and the growing presence of actors who do not share our values. Whoever controls it will control a key part of global trade. Argentina has to be that actor," he argued.

"We must create the century of the Americas: Make Americas Great Again, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego," declared Milei.

"We have the critical minerals that the West needs. We have the energy – gas, oil, nuclear power and renewable energy – to supply large-scale production chains.”

He talked up Argentina's location at the southern tip of the Americas, noting it has "access to two oceans and a presence in Antarctica."

On his alliance with the US and Trump, Milei's government backed Washington's strikes on Iran that began on Saturday and put Argentina on high alert.

Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, and it accused Iran and Hezbollah of being behind the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Ambitious reform package

Devoting the majority of his speech to his government's macroeconomic successes over the past two years, particularly in combating inflation, Milei said he wanted to press his reforms further.

He announced an ambitious package of 90 reforms in the address, , which was marked by verbal clashes with opposition lawmakers, saying he would "redesign" Argentina "for the next 50 years, with Western morality as state policy."

The reforms are expected to address the economy, taxes, the criminal code, the electoral system, education, justice and defence.

There will be "nine uninterrupted months of structural reforms that will reshape the institutional architecture of the New Argentina," he said.

The President devoted the first part of his speech to criticising the "failed state" he said he inherited when he took office in a country "ensnared in an inscrutable web of regulations.”

He also defended trade liberalisation as one of the pillars of his project.

"After decades of protection, we ended up with a small, expensive industry, dependent on subsidies and with meagre salaries in dollars," he said, lashing out at local business leaders who have criticised him in recent weeks for opening up imports, which they say is affecting domestic production.
 
Milei was often interrupted by insults from opposition lawmakers, to whom he responded with a stream of insults, including "thieves," "criminals" and “ignoramuses.”

Emboldened

The speech marked the beginning of the new legislative cycle after a turbulent 2025, which was marked by corruption allegations against officials and episodes of currency instability.

But Milei, who took office in December 2023, begins this parliamentary year in a position of political strength, bolstered by his electoral success in the midterm elections in October.

Last week the country's Congress adopted Milei's flagship labour reform, handing a victory to the self-described “anarcho capitalist” leader in his push to boost hiring by loosening rules on working hours, dismissals and overtime.

Milei’s so-called "labour modernisation law" allows working days of up to 12 hours, reduces severance pay, limits the right to strike and lowers employer taxes, among other provisions.

The law brought thousands of people onto the streets in the past two weeks in protest over what they see as a rollback in workers' rights.

"Milei can only move forward," political scientist Pablo Touzón told AFP. "His political movement is quite punk," so "the reform agenda is necessary for him" to sustain his economic model.

– TIMES/AFP