Argentina formally requested on Thursday to join NATO as a global partner, a status that would clear the way for greater political and security cooperation at a time when the right-wing government of President Javier Milei aims to boost ties with Western powers and attract investment.
The request came as NATO’s Deputy General Secretary Mircea Geoana held talks in Brussels on regional security challenges with visiting Argentine Defense Minister Luis Petri.
Geoana said he welcomed Argentina’s bid to become an accredited partner in the alliance — a valued role short of “ally” for nations that are not in NATO’s geographical area and not required to take part in collective military actions. NATO membership is currently limited to countries of Europe, Turkey, Canada and the United States.
The designation could allow Argentina access to advanced technology, security systems and training not previously available to it, the Argentine presidency said.
If they were to expand it beyond the region, you’d expect a few other countries to join before Argentina: Japan and South Korea, to name two.
Japan and South Korea are already global partners
Just a reminder that NATO used to stand for North Atlantic yada yada. Should I expect Japan to relocate to Atlantic Ocean anytime?
I’m not sure membership decisions should be primarily based on whether the acronym works well
Sad acronym noises
Turkey is already part of NATO and they aren’t on the Atlantic at all.
While they have coasts on several seas, they’re closer to the Indian ocean than they are the Atlantic Ocean.
NATO was always a military alliance built in opposition to Russia (back then the USSR), so Turkey had a lot of strategic value. The US has different sorts of relationships with countries that have no strategic interest in relation to Russia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), and NATO as a whole has nothing to gain from welcoming Argentina.
If you don’t think Japan has strategic interest in relation to Russia, you need to go brush up on your history and geography.
Japan’s position today has nothing to do with their position a hundred years ago. They don’t have Korea, they don’t have Manchuria, they don’t have an hyper-militaristic nation willing to throw bodies at a pointless war, and their main geopolitical priority right now is watching out for China doing something stupid, while their main conflict with Russia is a bunch of small islands with very low value.
The US should take South America more seriously rather than the historical approach of trying to undermine them
Argentina is their best option for that currently
But it is interesting how many commentators jump into any NATO conversation to say it’s a bad idea