Argentina’s government signed a Tuesday statement of intent to acquire 24 F-16 fighter jets from Denmark, Defense Minister Luis Petri announced after a meeting with Trolls’ Danish counterpart Lund Poulsen.

“We are laying the foundations of security cooperation between Denmark, the US and Argentina,” Defense Minister Petri said via Platform X, without elaborating on the price for Denmark’s purchase of the F-16s.

According to the defense ministry in Copenhagen, it amounts to about 2.1 billion kroner (280 million euros) and also includes spare parts, engines, simulators and other training material. In a press release, Mr. Lund Poulsen also noted that the F-16 deal was reached “in cooperation with the United States.”

The Argentine press highlighted the White House’s support for Buenos Aires’ acquisition of the American-designed F-16 jets.

The head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, visited Buenos Aires last month and met the new president of Argentina, Javier Millay, who assured him that his country had “decided to return to the side of the West”.

In recent years, China and India have approached Argentina for fighter jets. The Air Force of the Latin American country retired the last Mirages of its fleet in 2017 – the French-designed fighter was until then its main aircraft – after four decades.

For its part, Denmark, which is gradually modernizing its fleet by acquiring F-35s, has promised to deliver 19 F-16 fighters to Ukraine and is training Ukrainian pilots to operate them on its soil.