Milei to skip another two summits: G20 and Mercosur
Argentina’s retreat from multilateralism becomes all the more apparent as President Milei bins off two key events – the G20 Leaders Summit in South Africa and upcoming Mercosur meet in Foz de Iguazú – and decides to send deputies in his stead.
President Javier Milei will not attend the G20 Leaders Summit in South Africa later this month, nor the December meeting of Mercosur heads of state in nearby Foz de Iguazú.
The news, confirmed by an official spokesperson for the President to the AFP news agency midweek, is the latest multilateral snub by Milei, who seems increasingly reluctant to attend international gatherings that include non-aligned world leaders.
Milei will send Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno in his place to the G20 Leaders' Summit, which takes place in Johannesburg on November 22 and 23.
Buenos Aires did not specify the reasons for the President's absence at the G20, which gathers together the leaders of the world’s largest economies and most influential nations.
But Milei has repeatedly voiced his diplomatic alignment with Israel, the United States and specifically US President Donald Trump, who last week confirmed he would not attend the Johannesburg meeting.
Trump does not intend to send any US officials, according to reports. Announcing his decision on social media, the US president cited debunked claims that white Afrikaners are being systematically "killed and slaughtered" in South Africa as justification for his decision to skip the summit.
Argentina has been a full member of the G20 since its inception. In 2018, under former president Mauricio Macri, it hosted the Leaders Summit for the first time in Buenos Aires.
The last time an Argentine head of state did not attend a leaders summit was in 2015, when then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner failed to fly to Turkey. The event was due to be held just one week before an election.
No to Mercosur too
According to reports, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry formally notified Brazil’s government on Wednesday that Milei would not be making the trip to nearby Foz de Iguazú, on the border between the two countries, on December 20 for the next Mercosur Leaders Summit either.
Milei’s likely absence could further escalate tensions between the head of state and Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, two ideological foes who have no relationship.
Brazil's government is eager to finalise the long-stalled free-trade deal between the Mercosur and the European Union before the end of the year. Milei’s non-attendance could hamper those ambitions.
Argentina’s President was also absent for another recent local summit last week, staged by the European Union and the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) bloc. On that occasion, Milei did not even delegate the task to Quirno; instead, Juan Manuel Navarro attended as a third-tier representative.
According to local media, Navarro, a foreign policy undersecretary, studiously avoided signing some points of the proposed communiqué, including Article 15 which wanted to “recognise the agreement reached on the first phase of the Comprehensive Plan to end the conflict in Gaza, as well as the results of the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit for Peace, held on 13 October 2025.”
The summit, attended by 58 of the 60 member countries, saw an unusually low number of heads of state in attendance, with just nine making the trip to Santa Marta, Colombia.
– TIMES/PERFIL/AFP