The US government would like Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), to go to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden as soon as possible — ideally as early as January, depending on the two leaders’ schedules.
Although at a meeting in Brasília this Monday (5) a delegation from Washington and the transition team did not find possible dates for the PT to travel before taking office, the White House thinks it is important that the visit takes place at the beginning of the new government. Brazilian.
The Biden administration believes that Brazil will resume a very active role on the international stage, which is why he made a point of inviting Lula even before his inauguration, as a sign of respect and indicating “priority for the relationship”, according to American authorities.
This Monday’s meeting was described as “very positive”. In it, Washington representatives stated that Biden would like to see multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), whose president-elect is Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, increasing financing for countries – including middle-income countries – deal with the impacts of the climate crisis and food insecurity.
On the American side, the meeting was attended by Jake Sullivan, head of the National Security Council, and Juan González and Ricardo Zúniga, senior director and deputy secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs at the body. For the transitional government, in addition to Lula, there were former Chancellor Celso Amorim, Fernando Haddad, quoted for the Ministry of Finance, and Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA).
US interest in possible cooperation and funding for actions to mitigate the climate crisis in the region was also discussed.
The Americans also raised the subject of the possibility of a new mission to Haiti, without pressuring Brazil. They stated that they would like to learn from the country’s experience, since the Brazilian Army commanded the United Nations mission in Haiti (Minustah) for 13 years.
Washington’s invitation to an elected president in Brazil is nothing new. The White House did the same in Lula’s first election, in 2002, when the PT’s victory generated anxiety in the financial market and in the US, which did not know how radical the left-wing unionist leader’s mandate would be.
The petista met in December of that year with then-president George W. Bush, before taking power. Contrary to expectations, chemistry was good, and the two met several times, including a barbecue at Granja do Torto and a meeting at the country house of the American heads of government, Camp David.
In June 2003, the Brazilian returned to visit Bush, now as president. “Lula has demonstrated in his six-month government that he is a pragmatic politician, willing to open up internationally, to business development, to promoting trade and to the fight against corruption and hunger in his country”, said the American at the time.
Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, was invited by the government of Barack Obama to go to Washington before taking office, but she wasn’t — still as president-elect, she participated in the G20 meeting in Seoul in 2010, alongside her political godfather. She would later make Argentina her first international destination.
Jair Bolsonaro, on the other hand, did not go to the USA in 2018, before taking office, because he was unable to travel, still due to the surgeries he underwent after being stabbed in the campaign, in Juiz de Fora (MG). But he hosted then-National Security Adviser John Bolton.
In March 2019, already in the Presidency, he went to Washington and met with Donald Trump in the first bilateral international visit – before, he had gone to the World Economic Forum, in Davos, in January.
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