Joe Biden will hold his first meeting with his Brazilian colleague Jair Bolsonaro this Thursday (the ninth) as part of the Summit of the Americas, on a day when announcements will be made on a topic they disagree with: global warming.
“We will work to build the future this region deserves,” Biden said at the end of the event’s keynote on Wednesday, adding that democracy is “a key component of the future.”
“Our region is wide and diverse. We do not always agree on everything, but in democracy we approach our differences with mutual respect and dialogue,” he said.
That’s a statement he could put into practice with the far-right president this Thursday.
Initially, Bolsonaro was reluctant to attend the Summit of the Americas, but a scenario of intense diplomatic activity and an offer of a bilateral meeting eventually convinced him.
A huge fan of former Republican President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has little affinity for Biden and was one of the last world leaders to recognize his election victory.
The differences between the two are stark: Brazil remains neutral on the war in Ukraine, where the US leads the western mobilization, and where, like Trump, Bolsonaro voices the specter of possible electoral fraud in the October presidential election without evidence. face former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Wednesday that this would be one of the topics discussed at the bilateral meeting, where Biden will talk about the importance of “open, free, fair, transparent and democratic elections.”
The two presidents also disagree on climate change. Bolsonaro considers Biden to be “obsessed with the environmental problem” because of pressures on Brazil to actively fight deforestation in the Amazon.
climate crisis
Climate is a central issue on Biden’s agenda. The US government official said on Thursday that vice president Kamala Harris will launch the US-Caribbean Partnership on the Climate Crisis (PACC 2030) in a region vulnerable to rising sea levels due to global warming.
The US will also “support” Brazil, Colombia and Peru through an initiative called “Amazonia Connect” launched at the climate summit in Glasgow, UK.
Latin America and the Caribbean, a region with immeasurable natural resources, is suffering from the effects of global warming, which also harms their economic activities.
The United States expects the addition of five more members (Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana, Brazil and Argentina) to the initiative, called Renewable Energy for Latin America and the Caribbean (RELAC), which currently covers more than 15 countries.
The Ninth Summit of the Americas was affected by the absence of several presidents, including Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was dissatisfied with Washington’s decision to exclude the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela by declaring them dictatorships.
López Obrador dispatched its chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard, who called the exclusion a “strategic mistake” and said Mexico advocated “re-establishing order among the Americas”. “It is clear that the OAS and its course of action are exhausted,” he said of the Organization of American States.
In a region where China is advancing and many countries are becoming their first or second trading partner, the US government must be careful not to lose its influence.
The Americas Summit should serve precisely to reinvigorate Washington’s relationship with Latin American countries and to overcome Beijing.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited the region 11 times since taking office in 2013, and Joe Biden has not visited since January 2021.
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Jake Sullivan explained that Washington does not intend to respond with astronomical financial announcements, but with actions aimed at “unlocking substantial private funding.”
Since the start of the event, the US government has announced several initiatives: an alliance for economic prosperity, a proposal for reform at the Continental Development Bank of the Americas (IDB), and $1.9 billion from the private sector to promote job creation and control immigration. Creation of the Health Associations of America to improve the training of 500,000 professionals in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, as well as in the region.
This Thursday, the leaders of the countries attend the first plenary meeting. On Friday, the remaining two will take place.
Five commitment projects will be adopted at the summit in five areas: democratic governance, health and resilience, climate change and environmental sustainability, clean energy transition and digital transformation.
Also, the so-called Los Angeles Declaration of Immigration will be adopted during the event. As country representatives argue, thousands of undocumented immigrants are making their way through Mexico in a trailer to the United States.
source: Noticias
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