US President Joe Biden has stressed to his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that the democracies of both countries “have been put to the test and have prevailed”. He was alluding to the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 and the recent attack on the seats of the Brazilian state power.
“Both our nations are strong democracies that have been put to the test and have prevailed. In both cases, democracy has triumphed,” President Biden defended during a meeting with the Brazilian President in the Oval Office of the White House.
Along those lines, Biden reiterated that the United States and Brazil are the two “largest” democracies in the western hemisphere, and shook hands with Lula to stand together against “political violence and attacks on institutions,” according to Brazilian news outlet Universo Online reported.
For his part, Lula focused much of his argument on the need to preserve the Amazon to “protect the planet” and ensure the “survival” of humanity. “We all have an obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a better world than the one our parents gave us,” Lula said.
“We will take this climate issue very seriously. And I’ll tell you something else, President (Biden), we need to have a new conversation to build stronger global governance, because without global governance (…) the climate problem will not work,” the Brazilian President said, according to “O Globo”.
Referring to the climate issue, Biden stressed that the United States and Brazil have “common values” and that there are “strong ties” between the Brazilian and American people that make Brasilia and Washington two “natural partners.”
Lula’s visit to Washington marks a rapprochement of positions between the United States and Brazil after relations were severely damaged during the tenure of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. In fact, Bolsonaro and Biden never met.
In addition, the trip gets a new perspective after the events of January 8, when an angry mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked the seat of the three branches of the government in Brasilia. These events were reminiscent of the events in the Capitol earlier in 2021, which Biden himself viewed as equivalent.
Prior to this Friday’s meeting, the two had already spoken on the phone twice: the first after Lula’s October 30 election victory and the second the day after the attack on the ministry’s esplanade, although they met in person at a summit in got to know Chile when the current head of the White House was still Vice President.
It is the Brazilian President’s first trip outside of Latin America since taking office. His first trips took him to Argentina and Uruguay, and trips to China and Portugal are already planned for the coming months.
News source: (EUROPA PRESS)
