UN’s ‘sacred covenant has been broken’, Argentina’s Milei tells General Assembly

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Argentine President Javier Milei told the General Assembly on Wednesday that the UN has broken the “sacred covenant” on which it was founded, failing at what it was meant to do – while excelling at things beyond its remit. 

In his third address to the General Debate, Mr. Milei said he would speak in a “constructive spirit” about three issues: what the organization should have done and failed to do, what it should not have done but did anyway and its position on artificial intelligence (AI). 

He said the UN had become a “useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats”, accusing it of allowing chaos, violence and terrorism to flourish, sheltering dictatorships, while Member States systematically voted against Israel.

‘Lacking consequences’

Turning to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), which he called a “national cause”, the President said the UN had looked the other way while unilateral changes continued despite resolution 31/49, adopted 50 years ago. 

“There’s no shortage of words or resolutions. What is lacking is consequences,” he said.

Mr. Milei said the Sea Lion project was moving towards oil extraction on the Argentine continental shelf under British licenses that Argentina “rejects as illegal and illegitimate.”

He repeated Buenos Aires’ position that self-determination “does not apply in this case, since the population was implanted by the occupying power on a territory whose sovereignty is in dispute”.

Argentina had submitted protests, sanctioned companies involved in oil extraction on the disputed continental shelf and sent a sovereignty defense bill to Congress, he said, again calling on the United Kingdom to resume negotiations. 

‘Anarchy and tyranny’

Mr. Milei said the UN had built “a bureaucratic leviathan” to decide how citizens should live, and singled out the pandemic, calling forced lockdowns “a global experiment in social control disguised as science” – the reason, he said, Argentina had left the World Health Organization (WHO).

Argentina had embraced free enterprise capitalism, was rebuilding its military and had “unequivocally aligned” itself with the West, the United States and Israel, he said, condemning Iranian attacks on Israel.

Avoid ‘pre-emptive’ AI regulation 

On AI, he said every technological revolution had brought fears about jobs that never materialized and that Argentina would “stand at the forefront of freedom” with “a commitment not to regulate pre-emptively”, limited liability for companies operating with AI agents and tax incentives.

Argentina would keep taking part in multilateral fora in good faith, he said, “but we mustn’t confuse cooperation with subordination.”

“No nation is guaranteed a place in history,” he said. “We believe that Argentina still has a great story ahead of it. And we have decided to go out and claim it.”