President of Argentina Javier Milei plans to have the South American nation sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Israel, the local channel Todo Noticias reported on Friday.
Todo Noticias, citing unnamed Argentine government sources, reported that Milei intends to have Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein start a formal dialogue with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar to promote the first corresponding negotiations, stressing that the Argentine government is “interested in having a trade agreement with allies such as Israel.”
Milei’s reported free trade deal proposal for Israel goes hand-in-hand with his plans of having Argentina ink a similar FTA deal with the United States as part of his administration’s “realignment” of Argentine foreign policy with the United States and Israel as its main allies.
Both prospective trade deals, however, would first require that Argentina depart from Mercosur, a regional trade bloc founded in the 1990s by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Mercosur’s rules prevent its member states from independently seeking out free trade deals with other nations.
Milei, who currently helms Mercosur’s rotating chairmanship, has been highly critical of the trade bloc, describing it as a “trap that limits our countries” and asserting that the group ended up becoming a “prison” that only hinders its members’ growth. Last week, during a speech to Congress, Milei asserted that Mercosur only “benefited Brazilian industrialists” and reiterated his calls to have Argentina sign a free trade deal with the United States.
Todo Noticias stated in its report that the Argentine government plans to promote Argentina’s exit from Mercosur in 2026 once a new Congress is seated following the upcoming October 2025 legislative election. The unnamed sources asserted to the Argentine newspaper that the government’s legislative priority for 2025 is to reach a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Argentine government announced on Thursday evening that Milei will sign a Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU), a form of executive order, to sign the new IMF agreement and then ask Congress for its support, who will have to vote to either ratify or reject the DNU. According to the Argentine newspaper La Nación, Milei intends to overcome an eventual blockade of an IMF-related bill in the Senate by leftist lawmakers, and justified signing the IMF deal through a DNU to advance Argentina’s economic recovery.
“The Executive accuses Mercosur of ‘working for the interests of the industrialists of Sao Paulo’ and assures that it seeks to compete with Brazil,” the report reads. “At the political table of the ruling party, they maintain that ‘it [Mercosur] does not comply with the guidelines for which it was created’ and confirm that they want to define tariffs directly with the countries.”
Upon the election of President Donald Trump in November, Milei began touting the idea of having Argentina sign a FTA deal with the United States and depart from Mercosur if needed. Milei affirmed in November that a free trade deal with the United States is “exactly” what he was looking for. On Monday, responding to a reporter’s question, President Trump said that he would consider signing an FTA deal with Milei.
“I consider anything. And Argentina — I think he’s [Milei] great, by the way — I think he’s a great leader. He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a fantastic job. He brought it back [Argentina] from oblivion. Yeah, we’ll look at things,” President Trump said.
Milei will visit Israel and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 23. According to Argentine outlets, the Argentine president will sign a cooperation agreement with Israel in the fight against terrorism.
Todo Noticias detailed that, in addition, Milei will also finalize a military and intelligence agreement with Israel during his official visit. The two agreements, the news channel explained, are part of a government agenda that seeks to reactivate an in absentia judicial process for the terrorist attacks on the Israeli embassy in 1992 and on the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) in 1994. In April, Argentine courts formally declared Iran and its proxy, the Shiite jihadist organization Hezbollah, responsible for both terrorist attacks against Jewish targets in Argentina.
Todo Noticias further detailed that Milei’s agenda, and the military-intelligence deals with Israel, also contemplate the promotion of the “League of Conservative Nations,” a proposal that Milei began touting in recent months to counteract the influence of international far-left organizations such as the Sao Paulo Forum and which the Argentine president also intends to serve as a basis for trade agreements. According to Todo Noticias, Milei will offer similar military and intelligence deals to President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with the intention of having Argentina’s SIDE intelligence agency collaborate with their countries’ respective agencies.
Prior to landing in Tel Aviv, Milei will reportedly conduct a four-day official visit to Spain on March 21 to receive the “School of Salamanca award” from the local conservative group Club de los Viernes (“The Friday Club”).
According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Milei will not meet with Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose wife Begoña Gómez was accused of being “corrupt” by Milei last year over allegations that she used her position to secure favorable government contracts for her business partners, leading to a diplomatic impasse between the two heads of state.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
