BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's President Javier Milei has sent a letter to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), formally requesting to start accession talks and do so "as fast as possible", according to three sources.

Milei said in a letter - dated Dec. 11 but sent to the Paris-based organisation on Wednesday - that the country aims to "actively resume" the process of becoming an OECD member. Argentina is also looking forward to "comply with future steps in the roadmap" to accession, the letter seen by Reuters said.

The South American nation first applied to be an OECD member in 2016 under Mauricio Macri's administration, but the government decided to freeze the application process after President Alberto Fernandez took office in 2019.

The letter is a response to one the OECD sent at the end of November to the then government-elect that formally invited Argentina to follow the steps to start the accession process, two of the sources said, asking not to be named because the talks are private.

Diana Mondino, Argentina's foreign affairs minister, will lead OECD discussions, according to the two-page letter signed by Milei and bearing the presidential seal.

A spokesperson for Milei did not reply to a request for comment.

"It's going to be an extremely lengthy procedure, it is going to be difficult. But we have to abide by the rules of countries that are far more developed than we are," Mondino told Reuters in an interview on Dec. 4.

In January 2022, the OECD also invited Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania to start the process of joining the organisation. Brazil filed an initial memorandum of accession more than a year ago, a step forward that Argentina has yet to take. REUTERS