U.S. President Joe Biden has stressed to his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that the democracies of both countries «have been sorely tested and have prevailed,» alluding to the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol and the recent assault on the seats of state powers in Brazil.
«Both of our nations are strong democracies that have been sorely tested and have prevailed. In both cases democracy prevailed,» President Biden defended during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House with the Brazilian president.
In this sense, Biden asserted that the United States and Brazil represent the two «largest» democracies in the Western Hemisphere, and extended his hand to Lula to unite in rejecting «political violence and attacks on institutions», according to the Brazilian news portal Universo Online.
For his part, Lula focused a large part of his arguments on the need to preserve the Amazon in order to «take care of the planet» and guarantee the «survival» of the human race. «We all have the obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a better world than the one we received from our parents,» said Lula.
«We are going to take this climate issue very seriously. And I will tell you one more thing, President (Biden), we need to establish a new conversation to build a stronger world governance, because the climate issue, if it does not have a global governance (…) it is not going to work,» the Brazilian president said, according to ‘O Globo’.
Regarding the climate issue, Biden stressed that the United States and Brazil have «shared values» and there are «strong ties» between the Brazilian and American people that make Brasilia and Washington two «natural partners».
Lula’s visit to Washington represents a rapprochement of positions between the United States and Brazil after relations were seriously affected during the mandate of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. In fact, Bolsonaro and Biden never met.
Moreover, the trip takes on a new perspective after the events of last January 8, when a disgruntled mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brasilia. These events were reminiscent of those at the Capitol in early 2021, which Biden himself has taken it upon himself to equate.
Before meeting this Friday, the two had already had the opportunity to speak by telephone on two occasions; the first after Lula’s election victory last October 30 and the second, a day after the Esplanade of the Ministries was assaulted, although they personally met at a summit held in Chile when the now head of the White House was vice president.
This is the first trip of the Brazilian president outside Latin America after taking office. His first trips have been to Argentina and Uruguay, and his future trips to China and Portugal are already on the horizon in the coming months.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
