Javier Milei's phone rang on the stopover on the Buenos Aires-Davos route that the President travels. On his WhatsApp he had a direct message from the UK's Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, David Cameron.
Prime minister between 2010 and 2016, Cameron invited Milei in his brief telephone letter to a meeting between the two on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday afternoon. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has withdrawn from participating for the second year in a row in the exclusive economic forum where Milei will make his debut. Cameron always was and in January 2016 he met Mauricio Macri, who had just taken office.
Incidentally, Foreign Minister Diana Mondino's first political meeting in Davos on Wednesday will be with Cameron, in the midst of a series of meetings with foreign ministers who travelled to Switzerland and with representatives of important companies. These meetings would only be accompanied by the Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Cima, who is in charge, among other instances, of reviving the Mercosur-European Union agreement, and Argentina's entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
After the declarations of the libertarians in the campaign with which Kirchnerism sought to make a difference - Milei admires Margareth Thatcher economically and Mondino considered the interests of the islanders in the sovereignty conflict over the Malvinas - the government of Libertad Avanza wants a relationship of greater dialogue and less conflict with the United Kingdom than the Kirchners and Alberto Fernández had.
In an interview about the end of the campaign, Milei said he would "exhaust all diplomatic avenues so that (the islands) return to being Argentine."
Relationships have already begun to take on a different format. On Tuesday, British police officer Stephen Kavanagh, executive director of Interpol's Police Services (and candidate to be Secretary General of Interpol from the middle of the year), is in Argentina. He met with Deputy Foreign Minister Leopoldo Sahores and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, as well as with the leadership of the Federal Police.
On the other hand, the same reality is forcing Milei to break with his original plan of only giving his speech and returning to Argentina, without granting any interview.
That initial plan has already been broken with the meeting that he will hold within the framework of the Davos Forum with the number of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, in which he would be accompanied by the Minister of Economy, Luis "Toto" Caputo, in a small entourage that, in addition to Mondino and Cima, is made up of the Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse and the Secretary General of the Presidency. Karina Milei.
They are also setting up a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Cameron had a very good relationship with Mauricio Macri and a very bad one with Cristina Kirchner – both accused each other of being "colonialists" over the Falklands issue.
For that matter, both Macron and Cameron - Sunak also communicated - were among the first to speak by phone with Milei to congratulate him on his triumph in the November 19 runoff.
According to Clarín, if the format of a formal bilateral is not achieved in Davos, they will at least have what the Americans call "pull-aside" and the British "brush-by". Delegations leave during an activity and leaders greet each other warmly, have a brief exchange and take photos.
In principle, only the Milei brothers, Foreign Minister Mondino, Economy Minister Caputo and Ambassador Cima would be with them.
Mondino's agenda
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of Argentina will have an agenda with Milei and another parallel one starting this Wednesday 17.
It will begin with a working breakfast with the Vice President of External Affairs for the Americas of the company Massalin Particulares, Matías O'Farrell.
He will continue with Cameron, and then with Minister Caputo, and Posse, will be at the Davos meeting "Country Dialogue on Argentina", which will be moderated by the former president of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno.
At midday in Europe, the Chancellor will meet with the Global CEO of MSD-MERCK, Joseph Romanelli, and then with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Hanke Bruins Slot.
In the afternoon, he will meet with his counterparts from the Republic of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, and the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavský, and with the State Secretary of the Swiss Confederation, Helene Budliger Artieda.
After Milei's intervention at the Forum (he will talk about his ultra-liberal plan, still in favor of Freedom, and about the legacy and economic deterioration in his lecture "Achieving Security and Cooperation in a Fractured World"), Mondino will participate as a panelist in the Dialogue of Ministers with Press Leaders, which will have Ricardo Ávila of the newspaper El Tiempo as moderator. and later Latin America's Economic Realism, which will be moderated by the former Minister of Finance of the Republic of Colombia, Mauricio Cárdenas.
Mondino will attend the reception hosted by J.P. Morgan and will then participate in the working lunch "Logging Into Latin America - The disruptive impact of emerging technologies and AI, together with Caputo and Posse.
On Thursday 18, Chancellor Mondino's agenda in Davos will begin with a meeting with her Costa Rican counterpart, Arnoldo André Tinoco, and will continue with a meeting with the CEO of NESTLÉ, Mark Schneider.
Always accompanied by Cima, she will be with the CEO of VISA, Ryan McInerney and, later, with the President of International Development of Coca-Cola, Henrique Braun, and later with the CEO of the Louis Dreyfus Company, Michael Gelchie.
He will return on Thursday the 18th in the same entourage that accompanies Milei.