Argentine presidency sources said President Milei will attend the Ibero-American summit in Madrid on November 4 and 5, two weeks after a visit that set off a clash with Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.
A presidency source confirmed the trip on Thursday and gave no details of his schedule: “I can only confirm that he is going to take part in the summit.” Andrés Allamand, the secretary-general of the Ibero-American body that runs the summit, said on Tuesday that he wanted Milei to come, because “Argentina is very important,” and that 14 of the 22 leaders invited had confirmed.
The summit, the 30th, brings together the leaders of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. On October 21 in Madrid, Milei called Sánchez a dictator, a thief and corrupt, and said Spain’s socialists should be kicked out of power. Spain’s foreign ministry condemned the remarks, and Milei repeated the insults after returning to Buenos Aires, weeks before Spain’s November 29 general election.
Milei has not held a bilateral meeting with Sánchez on any of his seven earlier trips to Spain.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will skip the summit and send Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Brazilian government sources said, so the two presidents will not meet there. Relations between the two countries are strained after Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, left Brazil through Argentina this week.