Argentina formally requests to join NATO as a global partner

The Minister of Defense of Argentina, Luis Petri, reported that his country formally submitted a request to become a global partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He posted the announcement on his X account, where he shared photographs of his meeting with the organization's Secretary General Mircea Geoana.

"I presented the letter of intent that expresses Argentina's request to become a global partner of this organization. We will continue working to recover links that allow us to modernize and train our forces to NATO standards," Petri wrote.

AFP reported that the transatlantic military alliance currently has a select group of nine countries considered global partners. Colombia became the only Latin American global partner in 2018.

Argentina hopes to move up from its current status as an extra-NATO ally, which it obtained in 1998, to become a global partner of NATO. According to the newspaper La Nación, this change would allow an Argentine military representative to be present at NATO's main headquarters in Brussels, allowing the country to better interact with military officials from other nations.