Argentine President Javier Milei and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez came face to face on Thursday morning at the 30th edition of the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, exchanging a brief and visibly distant greeting.
The encounter came just two weeks after Milei described Sánchez as an “unpresentable dictator”, in the latest episode of a long-running political dispute between the two leaders.
Their relationship has been strained for years, with ideological differences repeatedly escalating into personal attacks. Tensions reached a diplomatic crisis in May 2024, when Spain withdrew its ambassador from Buenos Aires after Milei criticised Sánchez and his wife, Begoña Gómez, during an event organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party.
The brief greeting on Thursday was the first public encounter between Milei and Sánchez during the summit.