LA PAZ, Boliva, Nov 20, (AP): Last year, then-presidential candidate Javier Milei declared Argentina would not "make deals with communists” in China or Brazil, calling their leaders "murderers” and "thieves” in a bid to channel the populist energies of Donald Trump and other global far-right icons into a winning political message.

But Tuesday, President Milei found himself at the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping and vowing to boost trade with the Asian powerhouse, a day after his economy minister signed a preliminary agreement to export Argentine natural gas to Brazil. Milei even acquiesced to a joint declaration endorsed by world leaders late Monday despite his earlier attempts to play spoiler to the G20 host, Brazil’s left-wing president Luiz Inácio "Lula” da Silva who was once called by Milei a "corrupt communist."

The final moments of the summit revealed Milei's more pragmatic streak, coming as a surprise after the irascible president sought to undercut various international initiatives - withdrawing Argentine negotiators from the UN climate summit, casting the only "no” votes on two UN resolutions, one supporting Indigenous rights and another advocating for an end to violence against women, and roiling negotiations at the G20 summit. 

Argentina has also dramatically reshaped its foreign policy in line with its hard-right allies in Italy - with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni headed to Buenos Aires on Tuesday to spend more time with Milei - and in Israel. On Tuesday, Andrea Tenenti, a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission operating along Lebanon's southern border, told reporters in Geneva that Argentina had decided to withdraw its peacekeepers from the force, known as UNIFIL.

He did not say why, but Israel has repeatedly requested that peacekeepers leave the area since the military's Oct 1 invasion of southern Lebanon. Despite Israeli attacks on peacekeepers, UNIFIL has vowed to stay put and none of the other 47 troop-contributing countries has pulled out. In the past few days, Argentine resistance to the joint G20 communiqué focused on clauses related to the taxation of the super-rich and regulation of online speech, diplomats said.