Speech by President Lula at the opening of the Brazil-Caribbean Summit
We cannot postpone the connection between our countries. We can no longer give up the opportunities that will be created by integration. I intend that we have a day of intense work so that when we return to our countries, everyone is satisfied with having participated in a productive meeting. So welcome to Brazil, ladies and gentlemen: ministers, heads of government, and friends of Brazil.
This week, Brasília will be the stage for two activities dedicated to the Caribbean.
Yesterday, we closed the 55th Assembly of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank.
Today, we will have the opportunity to deepen our dialogue. The motto of this meeting – “bringing together to unite” – comes from the final line of the speech I delivered at the 2010 Brazil-CARICOM Summit.
After 15 years, it translates to an unfinished challenge.
Throughout this period, our relationship fluctuated between moments of advancement, stagnation, and regression. Our trade exchange has reduced by 30% since then. We used to have a flow of USD 6 billion, which now gravitates around USD 4 billion.
At the end of my second term, we had resident embassies in all of the Caribbean. Five of them were closed by my predecessors. We are working to resolve this issue, and we have already reopened our office in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Last year, my participation in the Georgetown Summit, by invitation of President Irfaan Ali [President of Guyana], inaugurated a stage of reflection for Brazil.
From that meeting, we started to dedicate ourselves to attentively listening to the region and studying ways to contribute to its priorities.
This Summit is a first step.
We have identified five areas in which collaboration between Brazil and the Caribbean can potentially render concrete results.
The first one is climate change.
We need to reach COP30 in Belém in unity. Our measure of success will be the degree of ambition of the new NDCs to be presented. Brazil’s goal, which foresees a reduction of emissions between 59 and 67%, was the product of an intense domestic exercise.
We know that, for developing countries, the elaboration of an NDC is an arduous effort. This is why Brazil has united with Denmark this year to co-chair the Partnership for the NDCs, an initiative that offers technical support for Caribbean countries to formulate and implement their goals.
Advancing in climate change adaptation and in understanding losses and damages is almost an existential issue for the Small Island Developing States.
I have just returned from the Nice Conference, where I emphasized the centrality of the ocean in the climate agenda. Our National Institute of Spatial Research [INPE] is ready to collaborate in the monitoring of the effects of sea level rise. We will share images from Sino-Brazilian satellites with all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
There are important synergies between the Bridgetown Initiative, launched by Barbados, and the Baku-Belém road map to reach USD 1.3 trillion in [climate] financing. It is up to the wealthy countries to face their responsibilities, so that the Global South can advance in a rhythm that is compatible with their circumstances.
The second area is energy transition.
A just transition means not penalizing the developing countries once again. Having different sources of energy is part of this strategy. The Brazilian option for biofuels has allowed sugarcane to transmutate from a symbol of a colonial past to a passport for a sustainable future. The Caribbean shares this past with Brazil and can also be part of this future.
The region has immense potential to produce wind and solar energy. Energy planning is the key to attracting long-term investments. This requires the development of institutional capacities.
We will soon organize a mission of the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Energy Research Company to explore cooperation opportunities.
The third area is food security.
According to the FAO [United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization], hunger still haunts over 12 million Caribbeans. This challenge will only be overcome through an association of public policies and adequate funding. This is the purpose of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, which today starts to count with Santa Lucia, Cuba, and the Caribbean Development Bank.
Seven countries of the region now integrate this initiative. I hope the others will soon join us in this alliance. The Alliance’s pool of policies includes initiatives that Brazil can share. Among them are the Garantia Safra [Harvest Guarantee], which protects rural producers from natural catastrophes, and the Cisterns Program, which helps combat the shortage of hydric resources.
We stress the call to all countries present at this Summit to join the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Public Supply Systems, which already includes Cuba, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines. Through this Network, Brazil can share its experience in forming public food stocks, an effective tool for keeping prices stable.
I am aware of the Caribbean's interest in diversifying its food suppliers. It makes no sense for Brazil — the barn of the world — not to be present on the tables of Caribbean consumers. Agricultural and livestock products currently compose an insignificant part of Brazil’s export agenda to CARICOM.
Merchandise can only circulate when the paths have been opened.
This is the goal of the fourth area, which addresses air, land, and maritime connectivity.
The shortage of connections explains why the Caribbean imports more from the United States, China, and Germany than from Brazil. The items that supply the region come from distant locations, even though the ports of Santana, in Amapá, and Pecém, in Ceará, are neighbors.
Brazil’s South American Integration Routes program aims to create and improve the infrastructure that connects us to the regional surroundings. Brazil has agreed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that USD 3 billion from its portfolio be destined to projects in South American countries. Part of these resources is being employed in initiatives in Guyana and Suriname, our natural entry ports to the Caribbean.
We only have valid agreements for air services with three Caribbean countries, but we want — and need — to go beyond.
Today, we will sign instruments with Barbados and Suriname.
Still this year, with the support of the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean [CAF], we will organize the Forum “Brazil opens doors to the Caribbean”, which will discuss ways to expand connectivity between us and promote new businesses.
The Caribbean Development Bank is also a key partner in this effort. Today, I am happy to announce that Brazil will contribute USD 5 million from the CDB Special Development Fund.
These resources will go to the region’s most vulnerable countries.
The fifth area has to do with Haiti.
Brazil has been at the front of the military component of MINUSTAH for 14 years. After the 2010 earthquake, we were the first country to contribute, with USD 55 million to the Haiti Reconstruction Fund. While the doors have closed to Haitians in several parts of the world, Brazil has granted more than 90,000 humanitarian visas since 2012.
In my recent visit to France, I stated on various occasions that Haiti cannot be eternally punished for having been the first country in the Americas to become independent. If, in the past, the punishment has come under the guise of unfair compensations and external interference, it is currently reflected in the stance of abandonment and indifference.
The international community must engage to support a national development plan for that country. Brazil advocates that the UN either direct part of the multinational security mission’s funding or convert that mission into a peace operation.
In the next few months, the Brazilian Federal Police will initiate a training that will be offered to 400 members of the Haitian national police. The security situation must be stabilized so that the next step of the political process can be taken to carry out presidential elections. We are available to cooperate in organizing the election.
Together with the Dominican Republic, Haiti was one of the countries selected to receive the first projects of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. With resources from the IDB, we will structure income transfer programs that will certainly improve the lives of the Haitian people. A few months back, we inaugurated a professional training center in Les Cayes, which was named after the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.
In a landscape of intensifying geopolitical disputes, the approximation between Brazil and the Caribbean reaffirms our search for autonomy in the face of old and new hegemonies.
The election of Albert Ramdin for the post of OAE Secretary-General is an example of what we can conquer when we unite forces. Without the Caribbean, we will never have a strong CELAC.
More than ever, we need to reaffirm our sense of solidarity.
We must continue to vehemently condemn the embargo against Cuba and its unwarranted inclusion on lists of countries that support terrorism. The world suffers from a lack of voices that speak on behalf of what is right, fair, and sensible. Brazil has always perceived this vocation in the Caribbean.
Ensuring that we will walk side by side and with our gaze into the future will be the most urgent task of the Brazil-Caribbean Ministerial Forum that we have created today.
Thank you very much.