President Lula hosts meeting with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken

This Wednesday (21) morning, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hosted a meeting at the Planalto Palace, scheduled at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. During the encounter, which also counted with the participation of Ambassador Celso Amorim, the Special Advisor to the President, and the US Ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley, they discussed the key issues in the bilateral and international agenda, with a particular focus on the G20. The meeting lasted an hour and fifty minutes.

President Lula expressed his appreciation for President Biden, exalting his position in the defense of democracy and the measures he has adopted in favor of the US working class.

The Secretary congratulated Brazil on the approval of its tax reform and the recuperation policies on social issues and fiscal responsibility. He recalled that the US has been Brazil’s main investor and expressed their interest in deepening economic and commercial ties between the two countries.

They also discussed Lula’s and Biden’s joint initiative launched in September last year, parallel to the UN General Assembly, to promote decent work, as well as the cooperation between the two countries in the fields of the environment, energetic transition, business forums, and infrastructure. Blinken informed that the US is contemplating a new contribution to the Amazon Fund. 

Blinken reassured the US support to Brazil during its G20 presidency and complimented the choice of themes for the Rio de Janeiro Summit: global governance reform, combat hunger and extreme poverty, and energetic transition. President Lula reaffirmed the need to reform international financing organizations and the UN Security Council, to which his interlocutor expressed his support.

The US Secretary and the President also discussed trilateral partnerships in the fields of agriculture, food security, and infrastructure in Africa. Lula highlighted the urgency in addressing the issue of the African countries’ foreign debt.

The Secretary thanked Brazil for its conduct in promoting the dialog between Venezuela and Guiana. President Lula reassured his desire for peace and the end of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. They both agreed with the necessity of creating a Palestinian State.

Blinken will travel today to Rio de Janeiro, where he will join the G20 chancellors’ meeting.