Lula: “We have recovered our right to making foreign policy in a serious way”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, yesterday (29), for a bilateral meeting at the Planalto Palace, in Brasília, and subsequently held a press conference. According to Lula, the meeting marks the resumption of diplomatic relations and friendship with the neighboring country.

South America must work as a bloc to solve its problems. We’ve been dealing with poverty for 500 years. If we’re together, we’re almost 450 million people – a GDP of almost 4 trillion dollars"
LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA
President of Brazil

“President Maduro is visiting Brazil again after eight years – and we’ve regained our right to making foreign policy in a serious way, especially with countries neighboring Brazil,” said Lula. “It’s hard to imagine that so many years have gone by without any dialogue with an Amazon neighboring country with whom we share an extensive 2,200-km border.”

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To the president of Brazil, one of the main goals is to recover the level of trade – which has dropped to less than a third of what it was in 2013 – between the two countries.

“Our commercial relationship used to add up to practically US$ 6.6 billion – and now it’s just below US$ 2 billion. This is bad for Venezuela and bad for Brazil,” he observed.

OPEN DOORS — In his speech, Maduro thanked Lula for what he called a historic opportunity for both countries to resume diplomatic relations. “I want to thank you for all the attention, and for the fraternal and supportive reception we’ve received in Brazil. We had a long and fruitful conversation with President Lula,” he said.

“A new stage in the relationship between our countries, between our peoples, begins today – for the construction of a new map of cooperation, of joint work, which encompasses all fields of economy, trade, education, health, culture, agriculture.”

Maduro highlighted the over 900 US and EU economic sanctions that have transformed the local economy. “Venezuela has dropped from an annual revenue of US$ 56 billion – from oil – to US$ 700 million. This has led us to a wartime economic reconstruction model to return to economic growth. Last year we grew 15%  for the first time in 120 years, and through an economy that is mostly non-oil dependent,” he said.

ENERGY INTEGRATION — The presidents of Brazil and Venezuela expressed interest in resuming the supply of energy produced in Venezuela to the Brazilian state of Roraima. The idea is to reactivate the Guri Line (Linhão de Guri), deactivated in 2019 following disagreements between Brazil’s previous government and the neighboring country.

"We want to recover our energy relationship with Venezuela. Linhão de Guri has to be put into operation – because Roraima is the only state outside the Brazilian energy matrix, operating on thermoelectricity, which is unjustifiable,” said Lula.

MEETING OF PRESIDENTS — The bilateral meeting between Lula and Maduro preceded another gathering that will take place today (30) at the Itamaraty Palace. Representatives of the 12 South American countries – 11 presidents and a Peruvian government representative – will discuss resumption of multilateral relations within the continent.

“South America must work as a bloc to solve its problems. We’ve been dealing with poverty for 500 years. If we’re together, we’re almost 450 million people – a GDP of almost 4 trillion dollars. If we don’t want to look to the European Union, we can look to the African Union, which has been cooperating for many years,” said Lula.

“We want a South America that is united in its diversity. We cannot allow exclusionary, intolerant ideologies to take over. May we all be united, may the culture of dialogue prevail,” added Maduro.

As well as Nicolás Maduro, presidents Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Luís Arce (Bolivia), Gabriel Boric (Chile), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador), Irfaan Ali (Guyana), Mário Abdo Benítez (Paraguay), Chan Santokhi (Suriname), and Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay) are attending today’s meeting. Current president of Peru Dina Boluarte will be represented by the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otarola.