Brasilia (EFE).- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva traveled to Washington on Thursday for his first meeting with US President Joe Bien, with whom he will discuss an agenda that includes democracy, environment and peace.
According to official sources, Lula’s first visit to the White House in his third term, which began on January 1, will have an essentially “political” content, but also a commercial aspect and others focused on the environment and human rights.
In fact, the delegation is made up of Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, the Ministers of the Environment, Marina Silva; Treasury, Fernando Haddad; and Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, as well as the Vice Minister of Industry and Commerce, Marcio Elías Rosa.
The Brazilian Presidency plane will arrive this afternoon at the Saint Andrews Air Base, but Lula’s agenda will only start tomorrow.
The first act will be a meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders, from the most leftist sector of the Democratic Party. He will then meet other lawmakers from the ruling party and a group of unionists, after which he will head to the White House.
The defense of democracy against the extreme right
One of the main points on Lula’s agenda with Biden will be the “threat” represented by the radical extreme right, which has shown its most violent face precisely in Washington and in Brasilia.
On January 6, 2021, fourteen days before Biden’s inauguration, the ultra-right supported by Donald Trump and unaware of the Democrat’s victory launched against the Capitol.
On January 8, it was the supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro who attacked the three powers of the Nation in Brasilia, in an attempt to provoke a coup against Lula, who had taken office on the first day of this year.
Lula has perceived “remarkable coincidences” between both attacks and maintains that the democratic leaders of the world must unite against this “undemocratic” ultra-right, on which he affirms that it has tentacles throughout America and also in Europe.
In the case of the attack against democracy in Brasilia, Lula has expressed his conviction that it was instigated by Bolsonaro, who has been in Orlando since December 30 and intends to extend his stay with a tourist visa, which has been publicly rejected. by lawmakers from the Democratic Party.
Caring for the environment and its economic potential
Lula has promised to resume the fight against the climate crisis, abandoned during the Bolsonaro administration, with special emphasis on reducing deforestation in the Amazon, which is the largest source of polluting emissions in Brazil.
He affirms, however, that this effort also requires that the carbon credit market agreed in the Kyoto Protocol, which has been in force since 2005, become a reality.
“Rich countries talk a lot about such a carbon credit but never show up when it’s time to pay,” he declared last week.
In the same framework, Lula believes that Brazil can attract investment from the United States for the development of renewable energies, for which it has enormous potential and incipient projects, especially in the area of green hydrogen.
Ukraine and a “respectful” discord
The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents the biggest difference between Lula and Biden, although the White House has said that the matter will be treated with “respect” for Brazil’s “sovereign” positions.
Lula has not explicitly condemned the Russian invasion and has even suggested that Ukraine also bears “part of responsibility” for the war, which began almost a year ago.
The Brazilian president has already proposed to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the creation of a group of countries, among which he cited Germany itself, France and the United States, as well as Brazil, India and China, to try a luck of mediation.
Scholz avoided commenting on that proposal, and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was also unenthusiastic.
According to the French minister said this week in Brasilia, in this conflict there is “an aggressor and a victim” and “the two countries cannot be put on an equal footing.”