Statement by President Lula at the 66th MERCOSUR Summit

It is with great satisfaction that I return to Buenos Aires, where we have taken so many steps in building a common path for the Southern Cone.

When the world becomes unstable and threatening, we naturally seek refuge in places of safety.

For Brazil, MERCOSUR is that place.

Throughout more than three decades, we have built a home with a solid foundation that can weather any storm.

We managed to build a network of agreements and extend it to our associated states.

All of South America has become a free trade area, based on clear and balanced rules.

Being part of MERCOSUR protects us.

Our Common External Tariff shields us from external trade wars.

Our institutional robustness presents our credentials to the world as trustworthy partners.

It is no coincidence that an increasing number of countries and blocs are expressing their interest in closer ties with us.

I personally witnessed this interest through my interactions with leaders from several regions.

We will face the challenge of safeguarding our autonomy in a context of ever-growing polarization.

The Brazilian Presidency will present an opportunity for us to think about the place we want to have in this new global chessboard.

This effort will require an unwavering commitment to five areas.

The first of them regards strengthening trade between us and with external partners.

We still face barriers to overcome, such as integrating the automotive and sugar sectors into our customs union.

Postponing this task would mean sacrificing the bloc’s strategic potential to make electric vehicles and biofuels.

Prosperity is not built solely by large-scale businesses.

We must reactivate MERCOSUR’s Business Forum and offer greater support to small and medium enterprises.

We can cut costs and cut risk of exchange rates by using our own currencies.

We need a reinvigorated and modern local currency payment system that will facilitate digital transactions.

It is important to expand markets and diversify partnerships.

I welcome the conclusion of the negotiations with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

I am confident that we will sign the agreements with the European Union and the EFTA by the end of the year, creating one of the world’s largest free trade areas.

We will also advance the talks with Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

Within our region, we must work with Panama and the Dominican Republic and update the agreements with Colombia and Ecuador.

The time has come for MERCOSUR to look towards Asia, the dynamic center of the global economy.

Our participation in global value chains will benefit from closer engagement with Japan, China, Korea, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

The circulation of goods and services depends on the availability of adequate infrastructure.

Brazil’s South American Integration Routes program aims to shorten distances and lower costs.

The conclusion of the Bi-Oceanic Route, connecting Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile, will reduce the travel time to Asia by up to two weeks.

This Route includes two projects recently approved by FOCEM [Mercosur’s Structural Convergence Fund] that will enhance sanitation and road connectivity for communities along the borders of Corumbá and Ponta Porã.

Throughout this semester, Brazil will work to structure the second stage of FOCEM.

We need FONAPLATA’s continuous support—an institution that is gradually becoming recognized as the Southern Cone’s integration bank.

The second issue involves facing climate change and promoting the energy transition.

The Southern Cone is already feeling the consequences of global warming.

The region suffers from droughts and floods that cause human loss, destroy infrastructure, and break harvests.

Reality is moving faster than the Paris Agreement, exposing the fallacy of climate denialism.

Brazil will reduce its emissions between 59% and 67%, by 2035, across all economic sectors, encompassing all greenhouse gases.

I would like to express my compliments to Uruguay and Ecuador for also having presented their Nationally Determined Contributions.

At COP30, in Belém, we will have the chance to show the world the solutions that come from South America.

Our Ministers of Environment Meeting will represent a crucial stage in the preparations for the Conference.

Through the MERCOSUR Verde [Green Mercosur] program, we will strengthen our sustainable agriculture.

Our cooperation will promote common sustainability standards, traceability mechanisms, and technological innovations.

We need a renewed impetus to recover our industrial capacity with environmental responsibility.

We will propose the formulation of a new sustainable taxonomy for MERCOSUR, to attract investments to foster a just transition.

South America has everything it takes to become the heart of this process.

We already have energy matrices that are cleaner than those of other regions.

We hold some of the world’s largest reserves of critical minerals.

I have just returned from the G7 Summit, where access to these minerals was defined as an imperative for energy security.

The race is on for lithium, rare earths, graphite, and copper.

An expanded MERCOSUR is our best platform to bring us closer and coordinate national policies.

We must ensure that the value-adding activities are carried out in our own territories, leading to technology transfers and the creation of jobs and income.

Seeking the support of OLADE [Latin American Energy Organization], Brazil will reactivate the discussions of Sub-Working Group 15 to launch the foundations of a South American agreement on critical minerals.

The third area is technological development.

New technologies are concentrated in the hands of a small number of people and companies, based in an even smaller number of countries.

Brazil and Chile recently formalized a partnership to create Artificial Intelligence models that reflect Latin America’s cultural and linguistic realities.

Initiatives such as this one can be expanded to MERCOSUR and to all of South America.

Bringing data centers to the region is an issue of digital sovereignty.

This effort must be met by the local development of computational skills, respect for data protection, and investments to cover the additional energy demands.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed just how vulnerable we are when we lack access to vaccines and medicines.

Brazil wants to turn MERCOSUR into a health technology hub that can tend to the needs of our population.

Our fourth challenge has to do with combating organized crime.

Criminal groups undermine State authority through the dissemination of violence, corruption, and environmental destruction.

We will not defeat these truly multinational crime organizations unless we act in coordination.

We must invest in intelligence, curb arms trafficking, and cut off the funding that bankrolls the crime industry.

With the renewal of the Tripartite Command of the Triple Border, we will have a permanent cooperation platform to combat financial crimes and the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and people.

With the International Police Cooperation Center of the Amazon, inaugurated in Manaus, the security forces of the nine Amazon countries will act jointly to curb environmental crimes and other illegal activities.

Initiatives like these complement one another and must dialogue between themselves to reach a South American scale.

Brazil will mobilize this expanded MERCOSUR to enhance and deepen our collaboration.

The fifth priority is the promotion of our citizens’ rights.

Without fostering social inclusion and addressing inequality in all its forms, there will not be lasting progress.

MERCOSUR’s Institute of Public Policies on Human Rights and its Social Institute must be strengthened.

Their technical support has been extremely valuable to our countries.

MERCOSUR’s Social Summit will resume to point out new paths for the bloc.

With this same purpose, we will hold a Union Summit.

The strength of our democracies depends on dialogue and respect for plurality.

Since the last Summit in Montevideo, we have lost two major references from the Southern Cone: President Pepe Mujica and Pope Francis.

I am proud to have come from the same quadrant of the Earth as those two exceptional human beings.

Brazil’s Presidency of MERCOSUR will honor their legacy, working towards a solidary and sustainable integration.

I wish you a productive semester, and I will be waiting for you all in Brazil in December.

Thank you very much.