Argentinian negotiators have been summoned home from global climate talks in Azerbaijan by the President Javier Milei’s government.
The team were ordered to pack up and leave on Wednesday, just three days into the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.
No reason was given, but the Argentinian president – a right-wing populist who has previously dubbed the climate crisis a “socialist lie” – had communicated with US president-elect Donald Trump the day before, according to his spokesperson.
Mr Trump had told Mr Milei “you are my favourite president”, spokesperson Manuel Adorni wrote on X.
Read more: Who thinks oil state Azerbaijan is ‘perfectly suited’ to hosting a climate summit?
It means Argentina, South America’s second-largest economy, loses its chance to influence the talks in Baku, which will draw up a new fund to help poor and middle-income nations cope with climate change.
The departure adds to concerns about the safety of the Paris Agreement, following the re-election of Mr Trump, who is expected to again withdraw the US from the treaty, and global climate efforts in general.
However, there has been no sense of other countries considering leaving, according to one negotiator.
“I have not heard anyone else make those noises in this process, and I don’t think it will be a chain reaction,” the negotiator said.
Other officials close to the process also said they had not caught wind of any other country wavering.
Delegates at COP29 have generally been reassured by the fact that the last time Mr Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, no other countries followed suit, despite fears of a domino effect.
On Sunday, one of Azerbaijan’s top officials told Sky News the US team remained “constructive”, while the US climate envoy has said the fight is “bigger than one election”.
But everyone meeting in Baku stadium for the talks is bracing for the US to disappear from future COP summits.
The COP29 presidency team found itself embroiled in another diplomatic spat yesterday when French climate minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher cancelled her trip.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had accused France of “crimes” in its overseas territories in the Caribbean.
Tensions between the two are long-standing due to Paris’ support for rival Armenia.
“Regardless of any bilateral disagreements, the COP should be a place where all parties feel at liberty to come and
negotiate on climate action,” European Union climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said in response, in a post on X.
“The COP Presidency has a particular responsibility to enable and enhance that,” he said.
But it’s not been all doom and gloom in Baku. Diplomats’ moods were boosted by the UK’s new climate action plan, and development banks also managed to pull some strings to release more money for the new climate fund.