Transcript of the speech given by Brazil’s President Lula during the visit of the President of Paraguay Santiago Peña

Today is a special day for Brazil and for Paraguay.

Although I have already been with President Santiago Peña a few times, this is the first official visit he has made to Brazil to discuss matters of interest to Paraguay in Brazil. It is an excellent year for both Paraguay and Brazil, because we have finally finished paying off the debt we owed to build Itaipu, made 50 years ago.

And now we are able to use the resources coming from Itaipu to improve the quality of life of the people of Paraguay, the people of Brazil and, at the same time, to try to establish possibilities for new investments with the money raised by selling energy.

But that’s not all. We have to have an in-depth discussion about Annex C. When Itaipu was made, when the treaty was made, it was established that, when the agreement expired, 50 years later, we would carry out a review of Annex C. And I am very interested that this be done as quickly as possible, and that we may work to present, to both Paraguay and Brazil, a definitive solution for new relations between Paraguay and Brazil in the management of our important company Itaipu.

We also discussed other Paraguayan matters which are very important. Not only the bridge—which still has to be completed on Brazil's side, because the company that won was unable to do so and had to stop working, and now it has begun again. I invited my comrade Santiago Peña for a joint visit to Porto Murtinho, so that we can visit the Integration Bridge which will allow Brazil and Paraguay to reach another continent.

I also told comrade Peña that we are going to re-discuss the issue of Itaipu tariffs. We have differences on the tariff, but we are willing to find a solution together and, in the next few days, we will hold another meeting. Now, I told President Santiago Peña that he is not the one who has to come to Brazil, now it is Brazil that has to go to Asunción, so that we may continue negotiations towards a definitive solution.

All of you from the Brazilian and the Paraguayan press know the good relations I had with Paraguay in my first terms, both in the meeting with President Nicanor (Nicanor Duarte Frutos) and the one with President Lugo (Fernando Lugo). Everyone knows that progress has been made in our meetings. I never accepted the idea of ​​treating Paraguay as a small country, as a smaller country. A country is not measured by the size of its population, but by the quality of its people, and by the quality of its leaders.

I think that Paraguay was fortunate to elect a very competent young man, a person that I, in a short time, have learned to admire. I think we will be able to finish our mandates having built the best relationship that Brazil has ever had with Paraguay and that Paraguay has ever had with Brazil. A relationship of respect, a relationship in which Paraguay has the same opportunity to grow as any other country. And Brazil, it is not about being generous, Brazil has the obligation to contribute so that Paraguay may use the full potential of the energy produced in Itaipu for its growth.

When we decided to build that transmission line to Asunción, at the time of President Lugo, that was because it was unacceptable to me, as president of Brazil, that every day there was a lack of energy in Asunción and Paraguay, even though there are 6 thousand megawatts available to sell to the Brazil.

So I want you to know that President Santiago Peña is taking with him, from here, the certainty that we will build the most harmonious, most professional and most political relationship that has ever been established between our two countries.

I hope that, at our next meeting, we can tell you what happened and what agreement we made.

Thanks for your visit. Thank you to your ministers—and I hope to be able to meet you in Asunción.

 And every time I go to Asunción there has to be someone to play a harp, because I'm fascinated by the harp.