By Lisandra Paraguassu and Matt Spetalnick
BRASILIA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Jair Bolsonaro has accepted an invitation to come to the United States to attend the Summit of the Americas in June and will hold a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden, two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations. On Thursday, the meeting was officially confirmed by the State Department.
This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Biden and Bolsonaro, representatives of the two largest democracies in the Americas, since the US president took office in January 2021.
The Summit of the Americas will take place June 9-10 in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, Chris Dodd, the White House’s special adviser to the Americas Summit, was in person at the Planalto Palace to invite Bolsonaro to attend the event.
According to a source at Palácio do Planalto, Dodd met with the Brazilian president to persuade him to attend the event after the United States learned that Bolsonaro had no intention of attending the meeting.
Someone in Washington with knowledge of the matter confirmed that Bolsonaro accepted the invitation to the summit. The source added that at Tuesday’s meeting, Dodd offered Bolsonaro a bilateral meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the summit, and that these talks are still being concluded.
The bilateral meeting was “almost certain” as early as Wednesday, Planalto source told Reuters.
In a statement released to the media on Tuesday, the White House special counsel said Biden asked him to come to Brazil with a special focus on the summit.
“I have come to reaffirm our long-standing appreciation for the deep and important partnership the two countries share – built on a common foundation of democracy, human rights, economic prosperity, the rule of law and security,” he said.
“This morning (Tuesday), in my meeting with President Bolsonaro, I reiterated our desire for Brazil to be an active participant in the Summit as we accept the collective responsibility to move towards a more inclusive and prosperous future.”
Two weeks ago, Reuters estimated that Bolsonaro was not planning to attend the summit. According to two sources, the decision at the time was not final and the president did not give reasons for not attending the event.
Bolsonaro is a fan and ally of former US President Donald Trump, who lost to Biden in the country’s 2020 presidential election. The Brazilian president has publicly denied the US leader’s statements.
(Additional reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasília)
source: Noticias
