President Milei has formally put in an application to join the global military alliance.
Today, Defense Minister Luis Alfonso Petri submitted the formal request. He said on X: "I met with Deputy Secretary General of NATO Geoana. I transmitted a letter of intent to him, which contains a request from Argentina to become a global partner of this organisation.”
[…]
“Argentina plays an important role in Latin America, and I welcome today’s request to explore becoming a NATO partner. NATO works with a range of countries around the world to promote peace and stability. Closer political and practical cooperation could benefit us both.”
Firstly, hooray for globalism.
Secondly, I did not have this on my 2024 bingo.
How would this even work? NATO is a treaty for collective defence against an attack on a member’s territory ‘in Europe or North America’. Argentina isn’t in Europe or North America, so presumably wouldn’t get the Article 5 protection that is the cornerstone of collective defence - unless the treaty was amended to also cover members’ territory in South America?
(Sidenote: to the best of my knowledge, since NATO was established only one country has attacked the territory of a NATO member in South America… 🤔)
I honestly have no idea. It also looks like Argentina is keeping their claim on the Falklands, too, so that muddies things even further.
