BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Argentina formally announced Friday that it won’t join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, the latest in a dramatic shift in foreign and economic policy by Argentina’s new far-right populist President Javier Milei.

Milei’s predecessor, former center-left president Alberto Fernandez, endorsed joining the alliance as an opportunity to reach new markets.

But economic turmoil left many in Argentina eager for change, ushering chainsaw-wielding political outsider Milei into the presidency.

In foreign policy, he has proclaimed full alignment with the “free nations of the West,” especially the United States and Israel.

Throughout the campaign for the presidency, Milei also disparaged countries ruled “by communism” and announced that he would not maintain diplomatic relations with them despite growing Chinese investment in South America.

However, in the letter addressed to his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva in neighboring Brazil and the rest of the leaders of full BRICS members — Xi Jinping of China, Narenda Mondi of India, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Matamela Ramaphosa of South Africa — Milei proposed to “intensify bilateral ties” and increase “trade and investment flows.”

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