President Javier Milei praised Chile’s economic policies on Thursday, during an unofficial visit to the neighbouring country on which he did not meet his Chilean counterpart Gabriel Boric.
“Chile has been a great example for what you have to do to sustain economic development over time,” said Milei in a speech during a ceremony organised by a company which transports natural gas from Argentina to Chile.
The head of state, who was making his first trip to Argentina’s neighbour since he took office, acclaimed Chilean economic decision-making “both for its healthy relations between the public and the private and its non-negotiable economic policy, which has lasted despite the changes in the political cycle.”
He highlighted that “the principles of life, liberty and private property established decades ago” have been upheld, stating that those “values help Chile take off, abandon delays and head towards a model of prosperity.”
Milei stayed in Chile for only around six hours. His visit was private and took in an event organised by GasAndes to celebrate the first TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet, some 28 billion cubic metres) of gas transported from Argentina to Chile through a pipeline crossing the Andes.
Argentina’s government assessed the possibility of a meeting between Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” and strict libertarian, and Boric, a strident left-winger, but Santiago cited agenda problems as cause for the lack of facetime between the two leaders.
The gas shipments from Argentina to Chile have developed along with up-and-down relations between both countries over the last few years. The gas pipeline came into operation in 1997 thanks to a promise to supply energy to Chile.
Yet in 2007, during the government of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), Argentina halted natural gas shipments across the mountain range due to a cold snap. This forced Chile to find gas on other continents.
Milei recalled those moments in his speech on Thursday. “Something which should be a happy milestone (the first TCF) is, unfortunately, bittersweet ... due to irresponsible policies by other Argentine governments, namely Kirchnerism,” he claimed.
Unlike on Milei’s previous trips to Spain or Brazil, during which he harshly criticised their respective leaders, during his brief stay in Chile he chose not to make any comments about Boric.
During the Argentine presidential campaign, Milei dismissed Boric as “impoverishing,” but the duo have both condemned the recent election in Venezuela as fraudulent, despite their ideological differences.
In January, soon after becoming president, Milei softened on the Chilean head of state, describing him only as “someone who has incorrect ideas from my point of view.”
– TIMES/AFP
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