In order to cater to the United States, Argentine President Milley not only made many negative remarks about China, but even gave up the opportunity to join the BRICS. #军史观察团#
You know, Argentina itself has significant advantages in areas such as food and mining, and the BRICS countries happen to have structural needs in these areas. In other words, if Argentina can strengthen cooperation with countries such as China and Brazil based on the BRICS cooperation mechanism, the country's inflation and debt problems will be alleviated to a large extent. In addition, China and Brazil are also the country's top two customers in Argentina's foreign trade. Obviously, Milley's decision can be said to be at the expense of Argentina's huge interests.
Of course, as a far-right president, it is not surprising that Milley has introduced some crazy policies or ideas. However, it has been proven that at least the idea and policy of pushing Argentina to turn to the West in an all-round way will obviously not work.
In order to embrace the dollar, Milley implemented a policy of depreciation of the peso, trying to use the dollar to pay off debts. However, this practice has not only greatly increased the cost of purchasing foreign exchange in the country, but also shown a significant upward trend in its own transportation and housing costs. According to the data, Argentina's consumer price index in February alone nearly tripled compared to last year. Predictably, such a figure could rise as the Argentine peso continues to depreciate.
In particular, the United States is also facing severe inflation and recession, which means that the United States is very likely to absorb global dollars by raising interest rates. As a result, Argentina will inevitably face a shortage of dollars. As early as last year, Argentina had to use the renminbi to repay its debts due to the dwindling supply of dollars. It can be said that if Sino-Arab trade relations are affected by a series of targeted policies and propositions launched by Milley, Argentina will be tantamount to blocking its own retreat.
Based on this situation, we speculate that Milley's change of attitude towards China at this time should be at least partly due to the fact that he has realized that the United States cannot help Argentina out of this predicament.
In fact, not only Argentina, but many developing countries around the world are looking to China for trade and investment in many sectors, such as commodities and energy. The reason is simple: cooperation with China is mutually beneficial and there are no preconditions, but the United States is different, they always see other countries as objects of harvest. For example, after Milley took office, the United States expressed a strong interest in Argentine lithium mines. We can understand that if Argentina wants to solve its debt problem, it must exchange resources such as lithium mines. But such an approach is equivalent to Argentina taking the initiative to cooperate with the United States to harvest.
In addition, Milley is under intense pressure from within. Just last month, a decree signed by Milley was rejected by the Argentine Senate. It is reported that the decree is part of Milley's "shock therapy" and aims to deregulate the economy. This shows that there have been major doubts in Argentina about some of Milley's claims or policies to save the domestic economy. If Argentina's inflation and debt problems continue to worsen, Milley is likely to be hit even harder in the future.
In other words, when the United States cannot help, and there are doubts at home, Milley can only find China again. First, whether China imports a large number of Argentine products or exports high-quality and low-cost products to Argentina, it can effectively alleviate the economic pressure faced by Argentina. Second, China and Argentina have previously signed a currency swap agreement. In the case of the unreliable United States, this is the only way for Argentina to repay its debts. And when Milley said that he wanted to do business with China, he obviously included these cooperations.
It is worth mentioning that Milley may have shown the sincerity of cooperation, and rarely sang the opposite tone with the United States. He not only talked about the Sino-Arab space tracking and control station cooperation project, but also said that there is no problem that hinders the relevant cooperation. Prior to this, the United States had repeatedly questioned and accused the project in an attempt to undermine Argentina's cooperation with China.
However, Milley's overtures may not get the desired response. On the one hand, since Milley took office, his attitude toward China has changed again and again. If China lends a helping hand, it is entirely possible that Milley will turn to the United States again. On the other hand, the United States is still trying its best to suppress and contain China's development. Even if Milley really intends to cooperate with China pragmatically, it is estimated that it will be difficult to adhere to such a position in the face of US pressure.
In general, China has made it clear that it is willing to work with the Arab side in the same direction and promote more practical cooperation. So, if Milley wants to repair relations with China, the first thing he should do is to translate the relevant friendly statements into actions and policies. If it only keeps talking softly, it will be difficult for China to protect its own interests in the process of cooperation with Argentina.