new York
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) told German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz that he intends to conclude the agreement with the European Union during his term as Mercosur president.
The PT member took command of the bloc in July. The mandate lasts six months.
The heads of state and government met this Tuesday (19th) in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting took place in the hotel where Lula is staying the president decided not to travel because of the pain.
Ministers Mauro Vieira (Foreign Affairs), Margareth Menezes (Culture), Esther Dweck (Management), Marina Silva (Environment) and Paulo Pimenta (Communication) accompanied the PT member at the meeting.
Other topics at the meeting included the Ukrainian War and environmental protection.
The meeting is one of five bilateral meetings Lula is having this Tuesday. In the morning he met with UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres before delivering a speech at the opening of the General Assembly.
In the afternoon he met with Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen. The two spoke about the COP30 that will take place in Belém, the energy transition and green industrialization topics also highlighted by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, who is accompanying Lula on his trip to New York.
Lula also spoke to the Austrian about the biofuel initiative that Brazil, India and the United States launched last month during the G20 meeting.
The PT member also invited van der Bellen to visit Brazil with a business delegation.
After the meeting with Scholz, Lula will meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
This Wednesday (20) the most important bilateral meeting on the PT’s agenda will take place with American President Joe Biden. Haddad has to accompany Lula to the meeting with the American.
Together the two will launch an initiative for decent work in the 21st century. Topics such as precarious work, union representation and applications are addressed. Brazilian and American union leaders and Labor Minister Luiz Marinho will also be present at the event.
Lula will then meet with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, WHO (World Health Organization) Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Paraguay President Santiago Peña.
In his speech this Tuesday, the PT member took up topics that had already been anchored in his speeches, such as combating inequality and hunger. However, he was more vocal in his criticism of the international system and called on other countries to take action.
“First of all, we must overcome the resignation that leads us to accept such injustice as a natural phenomenon. To overcome inequality, the political will of those who rule the world is missing,” he explained.
One of the targets of Lula’s criticism was the IMF (International Monetary Fund). The president noted that last year the institution loaned $160 billion to European countries and only $34 billion to African countries.
The president criticized the unequal representation of the fund and the World Bank, in which countries that contribute more resources have greater voting power. For Lula this is “unacceptable”.
With his speech, the PT member increases the pressure on these institutions to reform. The flag has also been adopted by the United States, which sees it as a tool for competition with China the Asian giant used financing from developing countries to gain influence over them.
Lula highlighted the emergence of other multilateral spaces beyond the United Nations, which provided the backdrop for an empty conference in New York this year.
“BRICS emerged in the wake of this immobility and represents a strategic platform to promote cooperation between emerging economies. The group’s recent expansion at the Johannesburg Summit strengthens the fight for an order that takes into account the economic, geographical and political plurality of the 21st century carries.” .”
The PT member also criticized the WTO (World Trade Organization) for its paralyzed view of rich country protectionism.