Milei’s U.S. Loyalties Do Not Preclude His Favoring China to Favor Argentina Best

Chinese port influence could expand geographically but also geopolitically along the critical, Argentina-controlled Via Navegable Troncal (VNT) waterway that threads through Argentina and serves Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

VNT Waterway Geopolitics

It is further evidence of another peculiar, inopportune time for the U.S. and its affairs with China as the upcoming trade discussions, recently rescheduled, could remain delayed if the U.S.-Iranian conflict escalates much to America’s peril while China benefits from diminishing U.S. leverage and influence, as evidenced by its escalated presence near Taiwan to likely test U.S. response and resolve.

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Belgium-based dredger Jan De Nul, which allegedly has back-door contracts with various CCCP companies, will not retreat. despite American competition and considerable U.S. financial interests involved. And likely nor will Milei lest his tarnishing his political career and personal prestige for conceding to U.S. loyalties than to the Argentine people. Jan De Nul’s recent earnings only bolsters further momentum toward a U.S.-less partnership along the VNT.

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As no word from U.S. government officials has yet leaked addressing the matter, its significance cannot be understated as similar Latin America and Caribbean-based (LAC) port systems, including by the Panama Canal, also remain under CCCP influence, either indirectly or increasingly directly.

And U.S. agency risk assessments and recommendations of China’s expanding economic influence via global port systems continue unabated.

Milei’s Multiple Tests

The impact to Milei’s electorate and Argentinians cannot be oversimplified, however. As rough as Milei has been toward his South American counterparts and the BRICS+ bloc to which some SA states belong (notably Brazil), his Libertarian ideology and subsequent ideals should divine him toward a decision irrespective of the U.S. and its recent conditional generosities.

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Put more forthrightly, if Milei selects the United States on the basis of political loyalty rather than open-market competition and Argentine interest, the risk extends beyond electoral costs: it will weaken his credibility by signaling a selective form of libertarianism and thus diluting his core anti-interventionist position. And privileging politics over economics risks Milei dismissing Argentina’s material interests curable by open-market policies under the full authority of Argentina.

Final Thoughts

Under these conditions, inconsistencies become visible and targeted. Milei’s Administration would be anti-interventionist in language but interventionist in alignment; supportive of markets in principle but selective in execution; nationalist in rhetoric but dependent in practice.