The Trump administration pressed Argentina on Wednesday to dismantle its currency swap arrangement with China, tying future financial support to President Javier Milei’s willingness to distance his government from Beijing during a week of high-stakes diplomacy at the United Nations General Assembly.
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The demand, first reported by the local newspaper Clarín and confirmed by the Post on Thursday, was delivered in meetings between the two delegations in New York, where senior US officials made clear that Washington expected Buenos Aires to reduce reliance on Chinese credit lines.
They argued that the swap, renewed last year and currently worth about US$18 billion, represented a long-term risk to Argentine sovereignty and created opportunities for China to expand its influence in South America.
The Post has reached out to China’s embassy in Buenos Aires for comment.
US officials had long raised the issue of the swap agreements between the South American nation and Beijing. In April, US President Donald Trump’s Latin America envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone described the swap as “extortionate” and warned that Washington would withhold support for Argentina’s loan request to the International Monetary Fund if the agreement with Beijing remained in place.
That same month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised Milei’s reforms during a visit to Buenos Aires but said the US was not considering direct credit lines. He added that Argentina should be able to pay off the US$5 billion it had already activated from the swap, signalling Washington’s preference that the deal with China be wound down.
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