Both presidents meet at the White House to discuss issues such as democracy, climate change and the war in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, meet this Friday at the White House with a focus on promoting democracy, fighting climate change and the war in Ukraine. A senior US official gave the press some details of the official agenda for the meeting, scheduled for 3:50 pm local time (20:50 GMT).
It will be the first face between Biden and Lula as leaders of their respective countries, although they have known each other since the American was vice president with Barack Obama (2009-2017). They first saw each other in 2009 during a trip Biden took to Chile, the official explained.
Biden, who believes good foreign policy is based on communication with other leaders, wants to develop a “personal connection” with Lula to make him understand how important the relationship with Brazil is to his administration, the source said. Specifically, the two leaders will talk about how to strengthen their commercial ties while respecting workers’ rights and promoting the fight against climate change, with a special focus on the Amazon.
One of the uncertainties is whether Biden will use the visit to Lula to announce what would be the first US contribution to the Amazon Fund, which was established in 2009 to help fight deforestation in what is known as the “lungs of the planet”. ‘ and was financed mainly with contributions from Norway and Germany. Both European countries have frozen their contributions with the rise of deforestation under the government of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023); but they have expressed a desire to resume them now with the leftist president in power.
Outside of the Amazon, the meeting’s other main theme will be the defense of democracy, especially after Bolsonaro supporters stormed the headquarters of the nation’s three powers in Brasilia on Jan. 8. A similar event took place in the United States on January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump (2017-2021) broke into the Capitol.
According to the aforementioned official, the two leaders will talk about democracy domestically, but will also talk more broadly about initiatives to strengthen it at the regional level and around the world, including the so-called “Democracy Summit” that Biden has promoted and that will be held in March this year.
Lula and Biden will also talk about the war in Ukraine, the issue on which they have the most disagreements, as the Brazilian has not explicitly condemned the Russian invasion and has suggested that Ukraine also bears “some of the responsibility”. The left-wing president has also advocated for dialogue, proposing in late January to create a group — including the United States, Germany, France, Brazil, India and China — to mediate the conflict.
In addition to meeting with Biden, Lula is scheduled to meet this Friday with left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and representatives from the largest union center in the United States, AFL-CIO.
Source: La Verdad
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