Lula da Silva visits Joe Biden, in a meeting with strong regional content

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will land this Thursday in Washington for a short visit, but of great regional importance: he will be received at the White House by Joe Biden and both will develop an agenda of common interests that make the leader of the PT the privileged partner of the United States in Latin America.

Biden thus specifies the invitation he addressed to the Brazilian a few hours after his triumph against Jair Bolsonaro, who was a friend of former President Donald Trump and had strained relations with the head of the White House. He receives it just over a month after Lula assumed power on January 1st.

In the meantime, Biden did not reschedule the invitation he had made to President Alberto Fernández, in July last year, suspended because the democratic leader had Covid. It has never been rescheduled, although Ambassador Jorge Argüello does not lose hope that it will ever happen.

Lula arrives this Thursday at 4:00 pm local time, 6:00 pm Argentina, and will be staying at Blair House, a mansion across from the White House, where guests considered special usually stay the night before crossing over to see the president of the United States. When he went to see Donald Trump, former President Mauricio Macri stayed there.

The agenda

The Brazilian will start official activity on Friday morning, welcoming democratic leaders -including Bernie Sanders- and the union leaders of Blair House. At 5:30 pm Argentina time, there will be a meeting with Biden at the White House. Saturday morning he will return to Brazil.

This was stated by James Green, professor of Brazilian history and culture at Brown University and chairman of the board of directors of the Washington office in Brazil clarion some of the interests shared by both leaders.

“The two countries have several points in common that are priorities for this bilateral meeting: the defense of democracy against the far right, fake news, and an ultra-conservative sociopolitical agenda to address long-standing manifestations of socioeconomic inequality. Every president, in his or her own way, sees this as a top priority, and I think there’s a lot to share on that front,” she said.

“Second, there is common concern for the environmentinvesting in green solutions, protecting the Amazon from illegal mining and deforestation, and working to tackle global warming,” he said.

Lula, on the other hand, “is trying to restore Brazil’s international importance as a global player and leader of the southern hemisphere. The United States continues to be an important country for Brazil,” she added.

This was stated by Bruna Santos, a senior consultant at the Brazilian Institute of the Wilson Center clarion that “the meeting serves Lula for two of his objectives. The first is to re-establish Brazil as an influential leader in the diplomatic world, and the second is to become a leader in environmental diplomacy.”

“The primary importance of this meeting for Lula is its symbolism; it is his opportunity to demonstrate his leadership and his commitment to democratic values. Given the events of the last month and a half in Brazil, Lula has the opportunity to be seen as a champion of democracy“, He added.

Lula, regional leader

The meeting is being watched closely in Argentina, as the government still awaits Fernández’s invitation, that loses opportunities with a clouded leadership in the detainees of the Frente de Todos and with “hostile rhetoric”, according to human rights organizations, towards democratic institutions such as Justice. The State Department has called on the government to “respect democratic institutions and the separation of powers”.

At the time, the Argentine envisioned himself as a benchmark for moderate progressivism in the region before the United States, reaching out to leaders across the continent’s ideological spectrum. But Lula today seems to be the interlocutor that Washington is looking for.

For Green, “since it is not clear what the outcome of the October elections in Argentina might be, I can only assume that the Biden administration understands that Lula will become an important figure in the leadership process of the progressive countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It will be interesting to see how Lula stacks up against other leftist governments, such as Chile and Colombia, regarding joint efforts in Latin America to create a more balanced power relationship with the United States.”

For Santos, “Biden has a new partner in the region. Lula appears to be best placed to eventually fill the role of regional interlocutor that Alberto Fernández once envisioned. I think it’s important for Biden to see the government’s consistency in defending democracy and human rights,” he said.

“Between Lula and Biden, the climate agenda, environmental diplomacy is, of course, a convergence of priorities. Between Argentina and the United States, there is less drama now than in the past. I don’t think Biden is looking at the region through the lens of the past. , right versus left. Their agenda now is to defend democracy in a world of competition between democracy and autocracy,” he added.