Saturday, February 11, 2023, 2:23 p.m.
The Amazon, thousands of kilometers from the White House, was very present at the meeting that Joe Biden and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held this Friday in Washington. Both shared harmony around the fight against climate change with objectives such as preserving this giant lung from threats such as deforestation. The US president showed his “intention to work in Congress to provide funds for programs to protect and preserve” this space, an unthinkable commitment in the last legislature with Donald Trump at the head of the United States and Jair Bolsonoro as leader of Brazil. “A 300-year-old tree has no owner, no one can knock it down,” said his successor after a meeting marked by the shadow of the far-right politician, in North American lands -specifically, in Florida, where he is trying to process a new visa to stay there- from more than a month ago.
Bolsonaro traveled to the United States on the eve of Lula’s inauguration, when his supporters stormed Brasilia in an obvious threat to democracy. A chapter – the Brazilian authorities are still investigating whether the former president had anything to do with it – that recalled the takeover of the US Capitol years earlier by Trump supporters in an attempt to prevent Biden’s victory from being validated. For this reason, the current top leaders of both countries insisted after the meeting on their commitment to “work together to strengthen democratic institutions.” A resounding no they pronounced to “extremism” and “political violence”. “Together we have to continue defending the democratic values that constitute the core of our strength, not only in our hemisphere, but throughout the world,” defended the North American leader.
He was present at the meeting in the shadow of Bolsonaro, who remains on US soil
The meeting between the heads of the two great powers of America ended with an evident support from the United States for “respect for the free will of the Brazilian people”, which was appreciated by Lula convinced that his country remained “four years marginalizing itself”. under the rule of his predecessor. “His world of him began and ended with false news,” he accused Bolsonaro. And although the defense of democracy and of a space as symbolic for Brazil as the Amazon united the presidents of the US and Brazil, in the meeting that the White House hosted there was also distance on other issues. The war in Ukraine was the main one, with two very different positions in terms of arms shipments.
Biden is leading Western efforts to back kyiv not only with diplomatic help but also with weapons and military training against Russia. Along with emerging countries such as India or South Africa and some Latin American countries such as Argentina and Colombia, Brazil does not hide its reluctance to send weapons. “You have to stop shooting, otherwise there is no solution,” warned Lula, in favor of creating a group of countries that “are not directly or indirectly involved” in the conflict in order to find a way out “to put an end to this war ». An idea that has already been expressed to the French leaders, Emmanuel Macron, and German, Olaf Scholz, and that he also wants to transfer to Xi Jinping in China in March. The statement after the meeting also included the “intention” to collaborate side by side, without further details, to meet Lula’s recurring demand for a UN reform that would allow Brazil to have a permanent seat on the Security Council.