Mauro Vieira and Biden’s secretary talk about Lula’s visit to the US without setting a date

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Chancellor Mauro Vieira spoke this Tuesday (3) with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, about a visit by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to Washington at the beginning of his term, but the telephone call ended without a set date. .

Lula’s allies say that Lula’s visit to US President Joe Biden is expected to take place in the first half of February. Initially, assistants said that the trip could take place in January, but the hypothesis is now considered discarded.

Americans even proposed a date in January for Lula to meet Biden, but the petista intends to inaugurate his international trips with Argentina.

The idea is to take advantage of the trip to the country’s main neighbor to participate in the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit. The meeting is scheduled for the 23rd and 24th of January.

The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government suspended Brazil’s participation in Celac in 2020. The bloc was created in 2010, at the end of Lula’s second term, as a way for countries in the region to articulate without the participation of the USA and Canada.

Another event on the international calendar that Lula ruled out attending was the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which takes place between January 16th and 20th. The main Brazilian authority in the forum will be the Minister of Economy, Fernando Haddad (PT).

After the US, Lula also intends to visit China, the country’s main trading partner. Beijing is the protagonist with Washington in a geopolitical and technological dispute already dubbed the Cold War 2.0 – and one of Lula’s main challenges on the external flank will be to balance this conflict.

The Biden government sent a delegation led by the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, to Lula’s inauguration. Lula’s assistants even expected, at first, a higher-level representation from the United States, in a signal of prestige to the new government. There was even speculation about the coming of vice president Kamala Harris or even Blinken himself, which ended up not being confirmed.

Haaland held work meetings with Lula government officials in Brasilia, but returned to the US without a bilateral meeting with the PT.

Lula dedicated his first day of work in the presidency, on Monday (2), to meetings with foreign heads of state. Among other meetings, he met with the King of Spain, Philip VI, and with the presidents of Argentina (Alberto Fernández), Chile (Gabriel Boric) and Portugal (Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa).

The Portuguese invited Lula to visit the European country in April, for the delivery ceremony of the Camões Prize to Chico Buarque. The Brazilian writer, composer and singer won the main prize of Portuguese literature in 2019, but Bolsonaro refused to sign the tribute diploma.

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