Noboa and Milei strengthen ties with a meeting full of political symbolism

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, met on August 21, 2025, with his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.

The meeting drew attention because of the photograph in which Milei posed with his well-known chainsaw, a symbol of his fiscal adjustment, while Noboa displayed a machete, a traditional tool of Ecuadorian montubios.

The Ecuadorian president is on a regional tour that has already included Brazil and Uruguay, aiming to strengthen bilateral cooperation with the main partners in the Southern Cone.

During the meeting, both presidents discussed citizen security, the fight against drug trafficking, and combating transnational organized crime, according to the Ecuadorian government.

Daniel Noboa and his inner circle | La Derecha Diario

They also addressed issues of trade, public finances, biotechnology, mining, and renewable energies, with the intention of expanding economic and strategic ties.

Noboa also participated, together with Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, in a meeting organized by the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services, where investment opportunities in Ecuador were discussed.

Official data indicate that, in the first half of 2025, Argentina exported USD 423 million to Ecuador, while it imported products worth USD 217.7 million, figures that reflect a year-on-year increase in bilateral trade.

Noboa's agenda in Buenos Aires also included a meeting with Mayor Jorge Macri, who presented him with the Key to the City and declared him an Illustrious Visitor in a ceremony at the Teatro Colón.

The meeting between Noboa and Milei strengthens political and economic cooperation between Ecuador and Argentina, amid symbolic gestures that seek to project leadership and cultural closeness.