After Argentina became independent from Spanish rule, the United States formally recognized the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the legal predecessor to Argentina, on January 27, 1823. The bilateral relations have seesawed over the last century and a half between periods of greater cooperation and periods of tension over ideology and finance. There has never been a threat of war. Argentine leaders were disappointed when the
American government refused to invoke the
Monroe Doctrine during instances such as the British establishment of a colony on the
Falkland Islands, or during the
Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata. In 1833, the US Navy shelled the
Falkland Islands, at the time under Argentine control, in retaliation for the seizing of American ships fishing in Argentine waters. The new constitution of 1853 was based in part on the
American Constitution. In 1853, a commercial treaty was concluded between the two nations.
1870–1930 and the
Liberty of Oudiné. Argentina was closely linked to the
British economy in the late 19th century; and as such there was minimal contact with the United States. When the United States began promoting the
Pan American Union, some Argentines were suspicious that it was indeed a device to lure the country into the US economic orbit, but most businessmen responded favorably and bilateral trade grew briskly after the United States and did care of duties on Argentine wool in 1893. Relations soured when Argentina refused to join the
Allies in the
First World War. Argentina had large British and German populations and both countries had made large-scale investments in Argentina. However, as a prosperous neutral it greatly expanded trade with the United States during the war and exported meat, grain and wool to the Allies particularly to Britain, providing generous loans and becoming a net creditor to the Allied side, a policy known as "benevolent neutrality".
1940s Argentina's policy during the
Second World War was marked by two distinct phases. During the early years of the war, Argentine President
Roberto M. Ortiz sought to sell food and wool to Britain. He even proposed to US President
Franklin Roosevelt for both countries to join the
Allies together as
non-belligerents in 1940. However his proposal was snubbed at the time, as Roosevelt was trying to get re-elected. US policy backfired after the
military seized power in a coup in 1943. Relations grew worse, prompting the powerful US farm lobby to promote the economic and diplomatic isolation of Argentina and attempt to keep it out of the
United Nations. The policy was reversed when Argentina became the last Latin American nation to declare war on Germany in March 1945. Argentina had hosted a fairly-organized pro-German element before the war that had been controlled by German ambassadors. It operated openly, unlike in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Historians agree that the affinity between Argentina and Germany was greatly exaggerated. The Argentine government remained neutral until the closing weeks of the war and after the war quietly tolerated and in some cases aided the entry of German scientists and some notable war criminals including
Josef Mengele,
Adolf Eichmann,
Erich Priebke,
Josef Schwammberger, and who were fleeing Europe through
ratlines. The voyages of German submarines
U-530 and
U-977 to Argentina at the end of the war led to legends, apocryphal stories, and
conspiracy theories that they had transported escaping Nazi leaders (such as
Adolf Hitler) and/or Nazi gold to South America. Historians have shown there was little gold and probably only a few Nazis, but the myths lived on and helped to sour relations with the United States. When
Juan Perón ran for president in 1945 and 1946, US Ambassador
Spruille Braden attacked him with a "Blue Book on Argentina," but public opinion rallied behind Perón. Relations remained tense throughout the Perón years, as he held
fascist sympathies, tried to remain neutral in the
Cold War and continued to harbor Nazi war criminals. Washington blocked funds from international agencies and restricted trade and investment opportunities. Meanwhile Peron championed Anti-Americanism across Latin America, and financed radical elements in other countries. He did not, however, support the USSR in the Cold War.
1955-1990s After Perón was ousted in 1955, relations improved dramatically. President
Arturo Frondizi became the first Argentine president to visit the United States in 1959. Argentina provided support for the American
Alliance for Progress, the American invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, and the isolation of Cuba after 1960. By 1976, US human rights groups were denouncing the "
Dirty War" waged against leftist dissidents by the repressive military regime in Argentina. They demanded congressional control over foreign aid funding to regimes violating human rights. The US State Department saw Argentina as a bulwark of
anticommunism in South America, and in early April 1976, the US Congress approved a request by the
Ford administration, written and supported by
Henry Kissinger, to grant $50,000,000 in security assistance to the junta. meeting U.S. President
Jimmy Carter in September 1977 In 1977 and 1978, the United States sold more than $120,000,000 in spare military parts to Argentina, and in 1977, the Department of Defense granted $700,000 to train 217 Argentine military officers. By the mid-1970s, when détente with the Soviets softened anti-communism and President
Jimmy Carter highlighted issues of human rights, US activists escalated their attacks and in 1978 secured a congressional cutoff of all US arms transfers to Argentina. Argentina then turned largely to Israel for weapons sales. American-Argentine relations improved dramatically under the
Reagan administration, which asserted that the Carter administration had weakened US diplomatic relationships with Cold War allies in Argentina, and it reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of the junta's human rights practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for the
CIA collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in arming and training the Nicaraguan
Contras against the
Sandinista government. The
601 Intelligence Battalion, for example, trained Contras at
Lepaterique base, in Honduras. Argentina also provided security advisors, intelligence training and some material support to forces in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to suppress local rebel groups as part of a US-sponsored program,
Operation Charly. Argentine military and intelligence co-operation with the Reagan administration ended in 1982, when Argentina seized the
British territory of the
Falkland Islands in an attempt to quell domestic and economic unrest. The move was condemned by the US, which provided intelligence to the
British government in its successful effort to
regain control over the islands. and Argentine President
Nestor Kirchner during the
2005 Summit of the Americas, in
Mar del Plata, Argentina The US has a positive bilateral relationship with Argentina based on many common strategic interests, including
non-proliferation, counternarcotics,
counterterrorism, the fight against
human trafficking, and issues of regional stability, as well as the strength of commercial ties. Argentina signed a Letter of Agreement with the
US Department of State in 2004, opening the way for enhanced cooperation with the US on counternarcotics issues and enabling the US to begin providing financial assistance to the
Argentine government for its counternarcotics efforts. In recognition of its contributions to international security and
peacekeeping, the
US government designated Argentina as a
major non-NATO ally in January 1998.
21st century and Argentine President
Mauricio Macri in March 2016. The
Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Argentine Ministry of Defense hold an annual Bilateral Working Group Meeting, alternating between Argentina and Washington, DC. Also, both nations exchange information through alternating annual joint staff talks, military educational exchanges, and operational officer exchange billets. Argentina is a participant in the Three-Plus-One regional mechanism (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and the US), which focuses on the co-ordination of counterterrorism policies in the triborder region. Although bilateral relations were strained after the US supported the UK on the
Falklands Wars. Currently, the US holds a position of neutrality on the issue of
the ownership of the Falkland Islands. It acknowledges the
de facto British control of the Falklands but has no position on the sovereignty claim over the islands. and Argentine President
Javier Milei in February 2025. Argentina has endorsed the
Proliferation Security Initiative and has implemented the
Container Security Initiative and the Trade Transparency Unit, both of which are programs administered by the
US Department of Homeland Security and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Container Security Initiative provides for the selective scanning of
shipping containers to identify
weapons of mass destruction components, and the Trade Transparency Unit works jointly with Argentine Customs to identify trade-based
money laundering. The
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering highlighted Argentine legislation passed during 2013 issuing new regulations strengthening suspicious transaction reporting requirements. In October 2025, Donald Trump announced that he might
cut off financial aid to Argentina if Javier Milei lost a crucial legislative election later this month. Milei would later win the legislative election. Before Milei came to power, Argentina was deepening ties with China. Argentina supported the strikes on Iran that
killed Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei, unleashing the
2026 Iran war, in which Argentina
has maintained continuous support for the United States and Israel. ==Economic relations==