Argentina’s Defense Minister Luis Alfonso Petri is in Israel to strengthen the strategic-security partnership between the countries.
Petri met with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv over the weekend, along with top Israeli officials from the defense establishment.
The meetings revolved around key strategic issues, including “Iran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East and Latin America,” Israel’s Defense Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
“This visit is a testament to Argentina’s unwavering support for Israel in the current war, strengthening the deep and strategic partnership between the nations,” the spokesperson continued.
“Minister Petri delivered a message from Argentine President Dr. Javier Milei, reaffirming Argentina’s steadfast support for Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Milei “emphasized that Israel’s current struggle represents not only a national fight but also the free world’s collective battle against terrorism and civilization’s stand against barbarism,” the statement read.
The ministry further stated that the parties agreed to expand defense cooperation, focusing on shared projects in “cyber defense, unmanned aerial vehicles, border protection, satellite communications, and future government-to-government (G2G) contracts in light arms, light munitions, radios and related equipment.”
Petri is expected to meet Israeli families of hostages and of those murdered in the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
He is further projected to meet with Argentine-Israeli soldiers who are living in Israel.
The minister’s visit comes in the wake of Milei’s signing of a historic memorandum of understanding between the two countries “in defense of freedom and democracy [and] against terrorism and dictatorships.”
The alliance was announced last month at an Argentina-Israel business meeting in Buenos Aires.
The Argentine president said that Israel is under “constant threat of being destroyed by the enemies of the free world” and confirmed that Jerusalem and Washington are the “most important geopolitical partners” for Argentina.
In September, Milei criticized the United Nations for its anti-Israel bias, speaking during a fiery address at the annual general debate of the General Assembly in New York.
He called out the world body for systematically voting against the Jewish state, “the only democracy in the Middle East, which protects liberal democracy,” adding that the United Nations has “simultaneously shown a total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism.”
The libertarian leader observed that “in this same house, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela, without reproach.”
