SANTIAGO, Chile – Traveling to attend the G20 summit last week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, French President Emmanuel Macron expanded his trip to South America and also visited Argentina and Chile, where he promoted the export of French-made military equipment that may have been worth more than $4 billion.
The French daily La Tribune announced before Macron’s departure that even if the stated purpose of the trip was to attend the G20 summit and strengthen ties and cooperation with Brazil, Argentina and Chile – France’s main trading partners in South America – the agenda also included advocating the sale of Scorpene diesel-electric submarines, developed by French shipbuilder Naval Group.
Macron first flew directly to Argentina, where he held meetings with President Javier Milei between November 16 and 17. Local military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, told Defense News that Macron pledged his support for Argentina’s plans for three Scorpene boats, worth $1.5 billion.
The Argentine Navy desperately needs the boats, as the service does not have fully functioning submarines, and is sending its specialized submarines to Peru for training and to maintain their skills.
According to local sources, Argentine Defense Minister Luis Petri signed a letter of intent for the purchase during a visit to Paris in October, starting negotiations on the details.
The government has now asked Parliament for permission to take out a multi-year loan of $2.31 billion within the 2025 budget law. This amount is intended to include both the purchase price of the three submarines and debt service of $800 million, approximately 55% of the value of the boats.
After Buenos Aires, Macron flew to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the G20 summit, where he met with the host, President Inazio “Lula” da Silva, to discuss a possible follow-up order for two additional Scorpene-type boats.
Under a $10 billion deal agreed in 2009, Brazil ordered four submarines of the same type, a deal that would supply almost all of the boats. The contract includes technology transfer provisions, allowing the country to build components domestically.
The Brazilian Scorpene-type boats are built locally by Itaguai Construçoes Navais, jointly owned by the Brazilian government through Emgepron (59%) and Naval Group (41%), including a significant number of components imported from France.
Finally, between November 20 and 21, Macron also visited Chile, which was the first export customer of Scorpene submarines with an order for two boats in 1998. Chile will launch a tender in 2026, possibly worth $1 billion, aimed at replacing of older German-built submarines.
