US Corridor Puts Argentina’s Infrastructure in Strategic Contest

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau is taking an infrastructure investment and security agenda to Argentina, where Washington says it wants to curb outside powers’ foothold in the hemisphere. His tour, which includes Paraguay, runs from October 19 to 26. It places Argentine infrastructure and energy projects within a US strategic initiative framed as competition with China.

Infrastructure and strategic influence

Landau will travel with Juan Pablo Segura, an Argentine-born businessman appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the region last August. They’re scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno at the San Martín Palace in Buenos Aires at 2pm next Thursday. Official Casa Rosada channels announced the officials’ arrival date on Sunday.

A State Department statement said Landau would meet “senior Argentine government officials and private-sector leaders.” Business and security top the agenda, which the report describes as central pillars of Donald Trump’s new security doctrine, designed to keep outside powers from gaining a foothold in the hemisphere.

Before the tour, Landau and Quirno appeared together in New York and signed the Andes-Atlantic Corridor infrastructure agreement. The United States and Argentina announced the initiative on September 23 during the latest United Nations General Assembly. US officials say they intend to “build on the momentum” of the corridor and seek “ways to drive economic growth, increase US investment and strengthen security cooperation.”

The proposed corridor would bring US investment to railways, waterways, ports, oil pipelines and energy infrastructure. Vaca Muerta’s shale reserves and the mining sector sit at its core. The report describes the initiative as part of US strategic competition with China, linking infrastructure investment to Washington’s regional security aims.

Security cooperation and regional reach

Segura said the officials would focus particularly on “narcoterrorism,” which he called a “threat to countries’ sovereignty.” Speaking to El Observador days before departing, he said: “One of the strongest tools the United States has is economic power. We are seeing that in Argentina.”

On October 5, the National Security Ministry announced that the United States had approved US$13.35 million in funding. It also said a regional unit of the State Department’s anti-narcotics office would open in Argentina. The ministry didn’t provide further details about the unit’s operations. US$7.5 million would fund projects in Argentina, with the remainder allocated to “regional initiatives”; the ministry said the arrangement would increase current cooperation tenfold.

The tour starts in Asunción, where Santiago Peña has emerged as a leading advocate of the Trump administration’s policy of “containing Chinese interference.” Landau isn’t expected to meet President Javier Milei, who is due to arrive in Spain on October 21, presidential spokesperson Adrián Ravier said.

Milei had just returned from his second US visit in a month. During a 36-hour stay, he received the US Chamber of Commerce’s “World Champion of Free Enterprise” award. He said he’d spoken by telephone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though he didn’t secure a photograph with Trump.

After the US midterm elections on November 5, Vice-President JD Vance is scheduled to travel to Argentina. The Casa Rosada confirmed a “regional visit,” potentially in the third week of November, based on reports the White House hadn’t confirmed. The report said it would be the first visit by a US vice-president since Mike Pence’s trip in April 2017.