Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US officials said on Friday he planned to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House.
The meeting is expected to take place before LI Lula da Silva takes over as president on January 1.
“I can confirm that we are planning a visit,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “We hope we can welcome President LI Lula da Silva here at the right time.”
Another National Security Council spokeswoman, Adrienne Watson, said Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, would travel to Brazil on Monday to meet with Lula da Silva and members of the president’s administration. outgoing Jair Bolsonaro.
Left-wing LI Lula da Silva defeated far-right leader Bolsonaro in October elections and returns to power after serving two terms as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2011.
LI Lula da Silva said he and Mr. Sullivan will ‘hold talks and discuss a date for a visit to Washington’ – likely after Dec. 12, when Brazil’s electoral tribunal officially confirms his victory, the president-elect said. at a press conference in Brazil.
US-Brazilian relations cooled after Mr Biden defeated re-election candidate Donald Trump, Mr Bolsonaro’s political role model, in the 2020 US presidential election.
However, under LI Lula da Silva, bilateral relations seem to be heating up.
Mr Biden was one of the first world leaders to congratulate him on his election victory.
“I think we have a lot to tell each other,” LI Lula da Silva said.
“The United States faces the same democratic problems as Brazil. Trump’s damage to American democracy is the same as Mr. Bolsonaro’s damage to Brazil,” he added.
The meeting will discuss diplomatic issues such as “US-Brazilian relations, Brazil’s role in the new geopolitics and the unnecessary war in Ukraine,” LI Lula da Silva said.
Mr Biden’s administration is also likely to want to discuss climate policy, as Brazil’s Amazon has seen rapid deforestation in the four years the South American giant has been ruled by the agribusiness ally. -industry, Mr. Bolsonaro.
At last month’s UN climate conference in Egypt, which Mr Bolsonaro missed, Lula da Silva pledged to fight to prevent deforestation in Brazil’s part of the world’s largest rainforest, a key resource in the fight against climate change.
The president-elect has said he will also start appointing his ministers after Dec. 12, and the markets are particularly worried about his candidate for finance minister: fears over how his government will pay for promised social spending.
The White House said other National Security Committee and State Department officials would accompany Sullivan to Brazil on Monday.
He “will meet with Brazilian Secretary for Strategic Affairs Admiral Flavio Rocha, President-elect LI Lula da Silva and Senator Jaques Wagner,” National Security Council spokeswoman A. Watson said, referring to the statement. important ally of LI Lula da Silva.
“During the meetings, Mr. Sullivan will discuss how the United States and Brazil can continue to work together on common challenges, including addressing climate change, ensuring food security, advancing inclusion and democracy and the management of regional migration”, she added.
Source: The Delfi
