Lula makes ‘rebuilding bridges’ trip to Argentina
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday started his first foreign trip since being elected with a meeting in Buenos Aires with Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said before the trip that Mr Lula was looking to “rebuild bridges” with the international community after four years of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro’s populist leadership.
The two leftist leaders were to discuss strategic bilateral “gas integration” and a “common South American currency” for financial and trade flows, the Argentine presidency said in a statement.
Mr Lula, 77, arrived at the Casa Rosada presidential palace accompanied by his wife Rosangela da Silva. He was greeted by Mr Fernandez and First Lady Fabiola Yanez.
Brazil is Argentina’s largest trade partner, according to official figures published last week by the Indec national statistics institute.
Brazil is the top destination for Argentine exports, amounting to 14.3% and worth US$12.7 billion (over 416 trillion baht) in 2022. Close to 20% of Argentina’s imports are from Brazil, worth just over $16 billion last year.
“Argentina is the most important country in our diplomatic relations,” Feliciano de Sa Guimaraes, academic director for the Brazilian Centre for Diplomatic Relations, said.
Likewise, Mr Fernandez’s government “depends a lot on Brazil”, not least in its negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with whom Argentina has a $44 billion debt.
Following the bilateral meeting with Mr Fernandez, Mr Lula had been due to hold talks in the afternoon with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.
However, that meeting was cancelled and Brazilian sources said that Mr Maduro had called off his trip.
Mr Maduro’s expected presence in Argentina had caused a stir, with civil organisations filing a complaint against the Venezuelan leader for human rights abuses, and some opposition politicians demanding he be arrested on arrival.
Yesterday, Mr Lula was to take part in a Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) summit.
His predecessor Mr Bolsonaro had suspended Brazil’s participation in Celac, alleging the body “gave importance to non-democratic regimes such as those of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua”. Mr Lula was also due to meet Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel before heading to Montevideo.