Milei at Davos Hails Argentina’s China Ties in Defense of Trade (Full Interview)

Javier Milei issued a robust defense of Argentina’s burgeoning economic ties with China, saying that his country had little choice but to pursue trade with Beijing — while seeking a deal with the US.

In an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Milei deftly balanced his ideological support for US President Donald Trump’s administration with his economic courtship of China, while making the case for free trade.

“The way we see it, China is a great trading partner,” Milei said, minutes after appearing at a Davos event with Trump as one of the founding members of the US president’s contentious “Board of Peace.” “If you look at China’s weight in the world, you’ll understand I have to trade with China.”

One of Trump’s closest geopolitical allies, Milei has attempted to strike a delicate balance between Washington and Beijing since referring to China’s Communist government as an “assassin” on the campaign trail. He has softened his rhetoric as president, neither embracing nor fully shutting out the Asian giant.

That pragmatic streak was on show during his interview at the Swiss Alpine resort, in which he declined to criticize Trump’s apparent freezing out of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado — whom he called a friend — while also avoiding the chance to find fault with Argentina’s larger neighbor Brazil under leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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