By Alessandro Spinillo, Legal Counsel
The signing in Jerusalem on 19 April 2026 of the first Isaac Accord, between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Argentine President Javier Milei, marks an important new development in Israel’s relations with Latin America. Conceived by President Milei in partnership with Israel and inspired by President Trump’s vision for the Abraham Accords, the initiative seeks to build a framework for cooperation between Israel and like-minded Latin American democracies.
Its importance, however, should not be understood only in diplomatic or symbolic terms. The Isaac Accords provide a broad framework to be given concrete effect by the signatory states through specific bilateral agreements, as well as through new investment and commercial relationships between private-sector actors.
As the Joint Declaration proclaims, the Isaac Accords are intended to bring together countries whose political leaders share a commitment to democracy, freedom and the Judeo-Christian values that have profoundly shaped the Western Hemisphere, whose security concerns increasingly overlap, and whose economies are highly complementary.
Legal nature of the Accords
The Isaac Accords constitute a new strategic framework aimed at strengthening cooperation between Argentina, Israel and like-minded partners in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in combating terrorism, advancing shared security interests and deepening economic and technological cooperation. As a joint political statement, the Accords do not themselves create binding international legal obligations between the signatory states, nor do they establish an international investment protection regime, provide for investor–state arbitration or contain general dispute-resolution mechanisms. Their implementation depends on the more specific bilateral agreements and other instruments adopted under the framework, as well as on the commercial relationships they are intended to encourage. The Accords therefore provide political commitment and strategic direction, while the legal rights and obligations arising from particular areas of cooperation must be determined by the relevant bilateral instruments and applicable domestic and international law.
Security first
The Isaac Accords give Argentina an opportunity to place security cooperation at the centre of a broader strategic partnership. The Memorandum of Understanding on Counterterrorism Cooperation, signed simultaneously between the two countries and comprising nine articles, provides a concrete foundation for this dimension of the relationship, translating the strategic commitment of the Accords into practical cooperation against one of the most serious common threats.
The Memorandum also builds on an existing bilateral security architecture. Argentina and Israel concluded a binding agreement in 1996 on cooperation against international terrorism and serious crime, subsequently approved by Argentina through Law No. 25.597. The new counterterrorism framework can therefore be understood not as creating bilateral security cooperation from scratch, but as reinforcing and potentially expanding an existing treaty-based legal foundation.
For Argentina, counterterrorism is not an abstract concern. Buenos Aires was the target of the two most devastating terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli interests in Latin America: the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the AMIA bombing in 1994. Both attacks have been attributed to Iranian state sponsorship, including the involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, as well as Hezbollah. They remain a profound part of Argentina’s national security experience and demonstrate that international terrorism can reach the country directly, with devastating consequences.
This history gives the security dimension of the Isaac Accords particular significance. Argentina has a direct national interest in strengthening cooperation with partners that possess extensive experience and capabilities in counterterrorism, intelligence, border security and the prevention of terrorist financing. The bilateral counterterrorism memorandum provides for a Joint Working Group through which such cooperation can be deepened, while the Isaac Accords provide the broader political and strategic framework.
Counterterrorism is part of a wider security architecture. Intelligence cooperation, information-sharing, secure borders, the fight against transnational organised crime—including drug trafficking and money laundering—the prevention of terrorist financing and the identification of emerging threats are increasingly interconnected. The Isaac Accords can facilitate a more integrated approach to these challenges.
This includes irregular migration, which has become a real security challenge for Argentina. Argentina has a longstanding tradition of openness to immigration, but that tradition is sustainable only when accompanied by orderly and lawful entry, effective identity and security screening, and the capacity to integrate newcomers successfully into Argentine society. Strengthening border controls and the ability to identify and prevent the entry of persons who may pose a security risk is therefore an essential responsibility of the state. International NGOs cannot, as Amnesty recently has sought to do, dictate Argentina’s immigration policy.
Recent European experience, notably in Ceuta, Spain, has demonstrated that large-scale irregular migration can go beyond humanitarian issues, violate the territorial integrity of a state and become an instrument of political pressure or hybrid warfare. This reinforces the importance of the intelligence, border-management and early-warning capabilities that Israel can provide under the new legal frameworks.
One institutional option raised in discussions with Argentine policy figures would be to establish a centralised position, reporting directly to the President, responsible for gathering and assessing domestic and international intelligence and for maintaining close liaison with intelligence counterparts in the United States and Israel (and others countries of course). Such a position could strengthen Argentina’s capacity to identify emerging terrorist and other hybrid threats and provide early warning directly to the President. It could be modelled, in appropriate respects, on the National Security Adviser system in the United States.
The Isaac Accords therefore offer Argentina not only a framework for political and economic cooperation, but also a stronger basis for addressing the security threats it faces today.
Artificial Intelligence
The Isaac Accords also open a new dimension of technological cooperation. The Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Argentina provides a concrete mechanism for combining Israel’s technological expertise with Argentina’s abundant energy resources, particularly in the south, and its strong human capital. This creates significant potential for developing AI infrastructure and applications in Argentina and positioning the country as a regional hub for this rapidly growing sector.
Direct flight connections Tel Aviv-Buenos Aires
The establishment of a regular direct flight between Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires, expected to begin by the end of the year, will give the Isaac Accords an important practical dimension. Direct connectivity will facilitate trade, investment, business and tourism between the two countries, while strengthening ties with Argentina’s large Jewish community and making travel between Argentina and Israel significantly easier.
From diplomacy to business
The economic dimension may ultimately prove just as important as the political one.
Israel is a relatively small economy with exceptional capabilities in high-technology sectors, while Argentina and other Latin American countries possess large markets, natural resources, agricultural capacity and substantial unmet demand for technologies that can improve productivity and resilience. The two economies are therefore not competitors in many of the areas in which cooperation is most promising; they are highly complementary.
Israel can offer technologies in fields where Latin American countries have immediate practical needs: security and cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, agricultural technology, irrigation and water management, medical technology and other innovation-intensive sectors. Latin American countries, in turn, offer markets and opportunities for investment, production, infrastructure and the application of these technologies on a much larger scale.
This is why the economic component of the Isaac Accords should not be treated as an accessory to diplomacy. As an old Venetian maxim has it, diplomacy works better when it is coupled with business. Commercial relationships create constituencies with a direct interest in maintaining and deepening political relationships. Trade, investment and joint ventures can make diplomatic partnerships durable in a way that declarations alone cannot.
From Argentina to a regional framework
The real strategic significance of the first Isaac Accord lies in what may follow. Argentina is not intended to be the endpoint of the initiative. The objective is to create a framework that other Latin American democracies can join as their national interests and political circumstances permit.
The initiative already has a broader parliamentary and political dimension, with legislators from different Latin American countries participating in the network surrounding the Accords. Likely candidates to join include Colombia, Paraguay, and Costa Rica. This provides a foundation for expanding governmental, parliamentary and institutional cooperation across the region.
The model is therefore different from a conventional diplomatic alliance. It is a network of partnerships based on shared values and complementary interests: security cooperation where countries face common threats; technology where Israel can contribute capabilities that Latin America needs; trade and investment where economic interests coincide; and political cooperation where democratic countries share a common strategic outlook.
For Israel, this offers an opportunity to reduce its diplomatic isolation in a region that has historically often been hostile to it. Latin American states can, individually or as a bloc, provide important diplomatic support in the United Nations and in cases involving Israel or Israeli nationals before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). For Latin America, the relationship offers access to Israeli technological and security expertise that can contribute directly to national development and resilience.
The Isaac Accords will ultimately be judged not by the symbolism of their signature, but by the practical relationships they generate. If cooperation develops in counterterrorism, artificial intelligence, water and agricultural technology, irrigation, water scarcity, trade, investment and direct connectivity, the first Isaac Accord could become the foundation of something considerably larger: a durable strategic partnership between Israel and a new generation of Latin American democracies.
