Argentina seeks to become a global partner of NATO

The Minister of Defense of Argentina, Luis Petri, advertisement the country’s interest in becoming a global partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

During a meeting with Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Petri presented a “letter of intent” formalizing Argentina’s request to establish itself as a global partner of the organization.

Petri emphasized that this decision seeks to modernize and train Argentine forces in accordance with NATO standards. The first step will be to initiate the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) process as an applicant, a preliminary phase for countries with the political will and capacity necessary to develop a closer relationship with the alliance.

So far, countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Bosnia and Serbia have started this process, while Finland and Sweden completed their entry this year after the escalation in Ukraine.

I met with @Mircea_GeoanaDeputy Secretary General of the @NATO. I presented the letter of intent that expresses Argentina’s request to become a global partner of this organization. We will continue working to recover links that allow us to modernize and train… pic.twitter.com/PN0s5bx9U2

— Luis Petri (@luispetri) April 18, 2024

In an interview before his European tour, Minister Petri highlighted that joining NATO’s global partner program will allow improving the country’s defensive capabilities through interoperability, participating in discussions on international security, modernizing military doctrine and accessing equipment and information to face multilateral challenges of the 21st century.

Petri also confirmed that this decision reflects President Milei’s mandate to reconcile the Argentine Armed Forces with the Western, democratic and free world.

If Argentina manages to enter as a “global partner”, this would be a higher status than that of an extra-NATO ally that the country had during the mandate of President Carlos Menem, when the alliance as an extra-NATO partner was a bilateral agreement with the United States and not with the rest of the NATO members.