President Lula speaks on the telephone with Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida

This Wednesday morning (10), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a call from Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida.

Among the issues raised in the conversation were the strengthening of the strategic partnership and commerce between Brazil and Japan, the Brazilian presidency of G20, and the cooperation between the two countries at multilateral forums to promote peace and democracy, and to overcome poverty. They expressed their intention to organize a visit of the Japanese leader to Brazil, and talked about a possible commercial agreement between Mercosur and Japan.

Lula expressed his solidarity to the Japanese people, in particular to the victims of the earthquakes of January 1.  He recalled that Brazil and Japan will be celebrating 130 years of diplomatic relations next year. He also agreed that both countries must continue to work to strengthen their strategic partnership and to increase bilateral commerce.

Both leaders spoke about defending peace and overcoming the conflicts currently occurring in the world. They agreed on the importance of strengthening multilateral instances to ensure that wars such as the ones in Gaza and Ukraine do not repeat themselves.

President Lula thanked Mr. Kishida for his invitation to participate in the G7 Summit in Hiroshima last year, and expressed his desire that Japan be involved in all instances of the discussions at the G20 this year. He stressed the need to bring the debate about climate change to the center of the G20 discussions. He also pointed out that, during the G20, Brazil will launch a global alliance against hunger and poverty, and that overcoming inequalities is key to the defense of democracy. “It is impossible to explain to humanity why it is that more resources are spent on wars than on the combat of poverty”, Lula said.