{"id":204829,"date":"2022-02-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=204829"},"modified":"2022-02-08T05:48:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T05:48:17","slug":"argentina-turns-to-russia-and-joins-chinas-belt-and-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/argentina-turns-to-russia-and-joins-chinas-belt-and-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina Turns to Russia and Joins China\u2019s Belt and Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina is trapped in $44 billion of IMF odious debt taken on by corrupt right-wing regimes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Argentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez meets with Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin and China\u2019s President Xi Jinping in February 2022<\/p><\/div>\n

6 Feb 2022 – Seeking alternatives to US hegemony, President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez traveled to Russia and China, forming an alliance with the Eurasian powers, joining the Belt and Road Initiative.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The United States constantly intervenes in the internal affairs of Latin America,\u00a0organizing coups d\u2019etat<\/a>, destabilizing independent governments,\u00a0trapping nations in debt<\/a>, and imposing sanctions. Washington sees the region as its own property, with President Joe Biden\u00a0referring to it this January as \u201cAmerica\u2019s front yard.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Seeking alternatives to US hegemony, progressive governments in Latin America have increasingly looked across the ocean to\u00a0form alliances with China and Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez did exactly that this February, taking historic trips to Beijing and Moscow to meet with his counterparts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez signed a series of strategic agreements, officially incorporating Argentina into Beijing\u2019s international Belt and Road Initiative, while expanding economic partnerships with the Eurasian powers and telling Moscow that Argentina \u201cshould be the door to enter\u201d Latin America.<\/p>\n

China offered $23.7 billion in funding for infrastructure projects and investments in Argentina\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

In the meetings, Fern\u00e1ndez also asked for Argentina to join the BRICS framework, alongside Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Xi and Putin reportedly both agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am consistently working to\u00a0rid Argentina of this dependence on the IMF and the US<\/a>,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez explained. \u201cI want Argentina to open up new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Argentine president\u2019s comments and meetings with Putin and Xi reportedly\u00a0angered the US government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Argentina Is Trapped In Odious Debt With The US-Controlled IMF<\/h3>\n

Argentina is a Latin American powerhouse, with significant natural resources and the third-largest economy in the region (after Brazil and Mexico, both of which have significantly larger populations).<\/p>\n

But Argentina\u2019s development has often been weighed down by debt traps imposed from abroad, resulting in frequent economic crises, cycles of high inflation, and currency devaluations.<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) \u2013 a\u00a0de facto economic arm of the United States<\/a>, over which Washington alone has veto power \u2013 has significant control over Argentina, having trapped the nation in huge sums of odious debt.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Argentina\u2019s right-wing President Mauricio Macri requested the\u00a0largest loan in the history of the IMF<\/a>: a staggering $57.1 billion bailout.<\/p>\n

Macri was notorious for his corruption, and this was no secret at the time. By agreeing to give such an enormous sum of money to Macri\u2019s scandal-plagued government, the IMF knew it was ensnaring Argentina in debt it would not be able to pay off. But this was far from the first time the US-dominated financial instrument had trapped Argentina in odious debt.<\/p>\n

In December 2021, the\u00a0IMF published an internal report admitting<\/a>\u00a0that the 2018 bailout completely failed to stabilize Argentina\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

But when Argentina\u2019s center-left President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez entered office in December 2019, his country was ensnared in $44.5 billion in debt from this bailout that the IMF itself admitted was a total failure. ($44.5 billion of the $57.1 billion loan had already been disbursed, and Fern\u00e1ndez cancelled the rest.)<\/p>\n

The Argentine government has tried to renegotiate the debt, but in order to do so the IMF has imposed conditions that severely restrict the nation\u2019s sovereignty \u2013 such as appointing a British economist who \u201cwill\u00a0virtually be the new economic minister<\/a>,\u201d acting as a kind of \u201cco-government,\u201d warned prominent diplomat Alicia Castro.<\/p>\n

Seeking ways around these US debt traps, Fern\u00e1ndez decided this February to turn to the two rising Eurasian superpowers.<\/p>\n

Argentine President Fern\u00e1ndez Travels To Russia To Meet With Putin<\/h3>\n

On February 3, Argentine President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certain\u00a0Argentina has to stop being so dependent<\/a>\u00a0on the [International Monetary] Fund and the United States, and has to open up to other places, and that is where it seems to me that Russia has a very important place,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said, explaining his motivation for the trip.<\/p>\n

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\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7 | "Estamos dando un paso importante para que la Argentina y Rusia profundicen sus lazos", expres\u00f3 el presidente @alferdez<\/a> en una declaraci\u00f3n conjunta que brind\u00f3 junto a su par Vlad\u00edmir Putin. #GiraPresidencial<\/a> <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccd @KremlinRussia_E<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/aHl8tOuPZy<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/APoQR6VHtU<\/a><\/p>\n

— Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n