Lula meets Horst Köhler, former IMF president and former German chancellor

On the last day of his mission in Germany, Tuesday (5/12), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met former German Chancellor and ex-President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Horst Köhler, and discussed issues such as the need to address African countries' indebtedness and the exhaustion of multilateral institutions in the face of the current international geopolitical scenario.

Köhler congratulated Lula on having paid off Brazil's IMF debt in advance during his previous presidency. "That doesn't happen very often," he commented. They discussed African countries' debts to the Fund in terms of how they impede economic development, and they cited instability in some territories, including armed conflicts, as another aspect of the continent's current challenges.

G20 - Lula informed Köhler of his intention to discuss how countries can work together to achieve the 2030 development goals at the G20. Brazil assumed the G20 presidency last Friday. The mandate is for one year and will expire on November 30, 2024. It is the first time in the group's history that the country has held this position in its current format.

At the head of the G20, Brazil will focus on the priority issues of President Lula's third term: the fight against hunger, poverty and inequality, as well as the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) and the reform of global governance.

"We want the emerging countries to be more involved in the decisions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The unsustainable foreign debt of the poorest countries needs to be resolved. The WTO needs to be revitalized and its dispute settlement system needs to start working again. To regain its political strength, the UN Security Council needs to count on the presence of new developing countries among its permanent and non-permanent members," said Lula in a speech last week.

AGREEMENTS - On the first day of his agenda, on Monday, President Lula met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the head of the German Federal Council, Manuela Schwesig, and the country's Federal Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

On the agenda of the 2nd High-Level Intergovernmental Consultations Meeting between Brazil and Germany was the expansion of business opportunities and government partnerships between the countries.

At the end, a joint declaration of intent was signed on projects of mutual interest in areas such as promoting green industrialization, low-carbon agriculture, the bioeconomy and the goal of zero deforestation by 2030, as well as a joint declaration on information integrity and combating disinformation.