The presidents of the United States and Brazil defend democratic values at a meeting where their differences over the shipment of weapons to Ukraine were clear
Thousands of miles from the White House, the Amazon was very present at the meeting Joe Biden and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held in Washington this Friday. Both shared harmony around the fight against climate change with goals such as protecting this giant lung from threats such as deforestation. The US president showed his “intention to work in Congress to provide funds for programs to protect and preserve this space”, an unthinkable commitment in the last legislature with Donald Trump leading the United States and Jair Bolsonoro as leader of Brazil. “A 300-year-old tree has no owner, no one can knock it down,” said his successor after a meeting marked by the shadow of the far-right politician, in North American countries, in particular Florida, where he is trying a new processing visa to stay there – from more than a month ago.
Bolsonaro traveled to the United States on the eve of Lula’s inauguration, when his supporters stormed Brasilia in a clear threat to democracy. A chapter – Brazilian authorities are still investigating whether the former president had anything to do with it – recalled the takeover of the US Capitol years earlier by Trump supporters in an attempt to prevent Biden’s victory from being validated. For this reason, the current top leaders of both countries insisted after the meeting on their commitment to “work together to strengthen democratic institutions”. They expressed a resounding no to “extremism” and “political violence”. “Together, we must continue to defend the democratic values that are at the heart of our strength, not just in our hemisphere, but around the world,” the North American leader defended.
The meeting between the leaders of America’s two great powers ended with a clear support from the United States for “respect for the free will of the Brazilian people”, which was appreciated by Lula, convinced that his country “remained itself for four years marginalize” under his predecessor’s rule. “Your world began and ended with fake news,” he accused Bolsonaro. And while the defense of democracy and of a space as symbolic of Brazil as the Amazon united the presidents of the US and Brazil, the White House meeting there also distanced itself on other issues. The war in Ukraine was the most important one, with two very different positions on arms supplies.
Biden is leading Western efforts to support Kiev not only with diplomatic aid, but also with weapons and military training against Russia. Together with emerging countries such as India or South Africa and some Latin American countries such as Argentina and Colombia, Brazil has made no secret of its reluctance to send arms. “You have to stop shooting, otherwise there is no solution,” warned Lula, before creating a group of countries “not directly or indirectly involved” in the conflict to find a way out “to end make this war ». An idea that has already been expressed to the French leaders, Emmanuel Macron, and the German, Olaf Scholz, and which he also wants to hand over to China’s Xi Jinping in March. The statement after the meeting also included the ” intent” to work side-by-side, without further details, to meet Lula’s recurring demand for a UN reform that would give Brazil a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Source: La Verdad
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