BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — One is an unpredictable billionaire entrepreneur and self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist, susceptible to expletive-filled expletives in opposition to “wokeness” and obsessive about making humanity a multiplanetary species.
The opposite is an iconoclastic Latin American chief and self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, susceptible to cloning his useless canine and obsessive about destroying authorities controls.
Tech govt Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei lastly sealed their budding friendship at a Tesla electrical automobile manufacturing unit in Texas on Friday – their first assembly after months of mutual admiration on social media.
It was a match made in free market heaven.
In social media posts that delighted their right-wing followers, the 2 emphasised their real friendship.
“To an thrilling and provoking future!” wrote Musk in Gesture.
“Lengthy stay freedom rattling it!” Milei wrote in his personal X-post, which included a selfie of the couple, with the president carrying his signature leather-based bomber jacket and Musk carrying his navy blue Air Power Academy sports activities jacket.
The assembly was closed to the press and an announcement from Milei's workplace offered little information. Free-market advocates have been stated to debate matters starting from the anticipated (easy methods to encourage entrepreneurship by slicing forms) to the fortuitous (the existential menace posed by declining start charges).
Milei's workplace stated the president wished Musk's assist in the battle between the social media firm
The 2 additionally agreed to “quickly host a significant occasion in Argentina to advertise the concepts of freedom,” the Argentine presidency stated, however gave no additional particulars.
However behind the smiley picture op — and the video of Milei's joyride in a futuristic Cybertruck pickup — there was rather a lot at stake for Argentina.
U.S. assist – notably from the Worldwide Financial Fund, to which Argentina owes over $42 billion – is essential to boosting investor confidence within the South American nation as Milei seeks to restore a damaged financial system with market-oriented measures.
With the revival of socialist governments throughout Latin America, from Chile to Brazil, Argentina is now poised to emerge as a key strategic associate for Washington, consultants say.
“There’s a likelihood that Argentina can fill this vacuum and ultimately grow to be a strategic associate for the USA,” stated Sergio Berensztein, who runs a political consulting agency in Buenos Aires. “Musk will help speed up the method of incorporating Argentina into the brand new community of associates (of the USA).”
Final month, Musk's firm delivered Starlink satellite tv for pc web service to Argentina, a transfer cheered by farmers struggling to maintain up with high-tech farming in distant elements of the nation.
Gerardo Werthein, Argentina's ambassador to the USA, attended Friday's assembly and instructed La Nación newspaper that Milei and Musk mentioned Argentina's huge reserves of strategic minerals, together with lithium, a vital ingredient in electrical automobile batteries.
“He expressed his need to assist Argentina and had an excellent overview of every thing we have now, particularly lithium,” Werthein stated of Musk.
Milei's desire without spending a dime markets and his shut alignment with US politics – a significant shift after years of left-wing governments that pursued interventionist insurance policies and strained relations with Washington – have raised hopes within the US that lithium and others are desperately wanted Metals may be mined nearer to residence, breaking China's dominance within the battery provide chain.
Analysts say a profitable power transition within the U.S. would require much more lithium and different important uncooked supplies than the nation can at the moment produce.
“We would like to have the ability to localize our provide chain as a lot as potential so that you don't should ship supplies world wide,” stated Ben Steinberg, a former senior adviser to the Division of Power and present govt vice chairman of presidency affairs agency Venn Methods . “The US has nice curiosity in cooperation domestically and with South American nations comparable to Argentina.”