Lula meets with Fernández in Argentina, the first stage of his return to the international arena

The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaarrived this Monday morning at the Casa Rosada, where he was received by his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernandezwith whom he will hold a bilateral meeting that marks the return of the South American giant to the international political arena.

The caravan of the Brazilian president, who has been in Buenos Aires since Sunday, arrived at the Argentine government headquarters at 11:00 local time (14:00 GMT), where Lula and his wife, Rosángela da Silva, “Janja”, were received by Fernández and the first lady, Fabiola Yáñez.

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The brazilian president77, is traditionally making his first state visit to his neighbor and partner in Mercosur -the bloc that Paraguay and Uruguay complete-, to later participate, on Tuesday, in the summit of presidents of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to which Brazil returns after a few years of absence.

In a common text released by the Pink House on Sunday night and signed by the two leaders, Brazil and Argentina stressed that the meeting’s agenda will focus on “gas integration” as a “strategic project of the bilateral relationship” and the discussion “on a common South American currency” for “financial and commercial flows.”

At the end of their meeting, the two leaders plan to make a joint statement to the media.

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Brazil is Argentina’s main trading partneraccording to official figures published last week by the national statistics agency INDEC.

With 14.3% of total Argentine sales abroad, the South American giant is the number one destination for exports of Argentina, which in 2022 totaled almost 12.7 billion dollars, a growth of 7.6% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, imports from Brazil barely exceeded 16,000 million dollars and, with an annual growth of 28.8% last year, represent almost 20% of Argentine purchases abroad.

The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, shake hands with their respective wives, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva and Fabiola Yañez. (AFP).

Meeting agenda

Lula also plans to meet in Buenos Aires with the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel. The leader of the communist island confirmed through Twitter that he is already in the Argentine capital.

However, A meeting with the Venezuelan ruler, Nicolás Maduro, which was on the Brazilian’s official agenda, was withdrawn from the planning by Planalto this Monday.

The Presidency did not officially inform the reason for the cancellation, but sources from the Executive and the Brazilian Foreign Ministry informed AFP that the meeting was suspended at the request of Maduro, who, according to the informants, is not in Argentina.

The presence of Ripe The atmosphere has heated up in the hours before the CELACsince he has been denounced by individuals and civil organizations before the Argentine courts for violation of human rights, and some opposition leaders ask that he be stopped from arriving in the country.

“Rebuild Bridges”

The Brazilian foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, explained on Saturday in an interview with the official Argentine agency Télam, that Lula will seek to “rebuild bridges” with the international community.

“What we are going to do in Buenos Aires and Montevideo (ndlr: where Lula will meet with his Uruguayan counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pou, on Wednesday) is to talk with the partners regarding the situation we inherited and possible directions to follow,” he said. the diplomat.

Lula begins this stage in the neighborhood and his first challenge is the internal crisis of Mercosur after Uruguay’s decision to negotiate a bilateral FTA with China and request entry into the Trans-Pacific Agreement without the consent of the other partners, a decision strongly questioned by Brasilia. , Buenos Aires and Asuncion.

On Sunday, in an interview with Folha de Sao Paulo, the Brazilian foreign minister reiterated his opposition to a Uruguay-China FTA, but acknowledged that “Mercosur is not the same as when it was created” in 1991 and that “the needs of each one and the asymmetries that exist, and see if some kind of concession can be made”.

Return to CELAC

Lula’s trip also marks the return of Brazil to CELAC, a consultation forum made up of 33 countries, which Brasilia left in 2020 by decision of then-President Jair Bolsonarowho considered that “it gave prominence to non-democratic regimes such as those of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua.”

Government Lula It intends to give a sign of “commitment to the spaces for dialogue and regional agreement,” said Foreign Minister Vieira. “It is not understood that we have left them.”

Lula visits Argentina after dismissing, on Saturday, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, for a “break in the level of trust” after the riot of radical supporters of Bolsonaro at the headquarters of the three public powers in Brasilia on January 8 asking for a military intervention that caused the fall of the president.

In his third term, Lula received the unison support of Brazilian institutions and the acts of vandalism in Brasilia were condemned by the international community.

Source: Elcomercio