3 May 2024
Deputy NATO Secretary General Mircea Geoană met Argentine Defence Minister Luis Petri at NATO Headquarters on 18 April 2024 for talks on working towards a partnership between NATO and Argentina.
Argentina has requested to join NATO as a ‘global partner’, a status that would clear the way for greater political and security cooperation. NATO currently has individual cooperation agreements with eight global partners: Australia, Colombia (currently the only NATO partner in Latin America), Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.
The right-wing government of President Javier Milei has been pushing a radical libertarian agenda in Argentina aimed at reversing years of protectionist trade measures, overspending and crippling international debt. He is also remodelling Argentina's foreign policy to one of greater support for the United States. On the same day as the visit to NATO, the US government announced $40 million in foreign military financing for Argentina, the first such security assistance grant in more than two decades. The funds, intended to help Argentina equip and modernize its military, will also enable the country to purchase US weapons. The grant will help pay for 24 US F-16 combat aircraft from Denmark—a $300 million deal confirmed in March, but greenlighted by the United States in October 2023. Denmark is replacing the F-16s with 27 Lockheed Martin’s F-35s at a cost of at least $2.2 billion.
Defence Minister Petri described the acquisition of the combat aircraft as “the most important military purchase since Argentina’s return to democracy” in 1983. The cost has drawn criticism from Milei's political opponents as he cuts other government spending.
NATO’s political dialogue with Argentina began in the early 1990s. Buenos Aires later contributed to NATO’s peace support operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Kosovo. Argentina has also been supporting Ukraine with humanitarian assistance, including food, medicine and support for refugees.
Any decision on a formal partnership would require consensus by all 32 NATO member states.Argentina's ties to key NATO member state, the United Kingdom, have been troubled since 1982, when the two went to war over the contested Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Conferring the status of ‘global partner’ on a country does not mean NATO allies would come to the country’s defence in the event of an attack. That commitment—laid out in Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty—is limited to full members of the alliance. Full NATO membership is currently limited to countries of Europe, Turkey, Canada and the United States.