President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will host a meeting with 10 other presidents of South American countries, next Tuesday (30), at the Itamaraty Palace, in Brasília. The heads of state of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela confirmed their presence. The only absence at the presidential level is Peru, whose president, Dina Boluarte, will not be able to attend the meeting due to internal legal impediments in the country. Peru is experiencing a serious political crisis since the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo at the end of last year. In his place will come the president of the country’s council of ministers, Alberto Otárola, a kind of prime minister. French Guiana does not participate because it is an overseas territory of France. The meeting had already been announced earlier this month by the government. A meeting of this size has not taken place for at least seven years. “The main objective of this meeting is to resume dialogue with South American countries, which has been very truncated in recent years, and is a priority of the Lula government. We are aware that there is a difference of vision and ideological differences between countries, but he [Lula] wants to reactivate this dialogue based on common denominators with the countries”, explained ambassador Gisela Padovan, secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE). Gisela spoke to the press during a press conference this Friday (26th), when she presented general considerations about the summit. Although the Brazilian government avoids pointing out a specific proposal, there is an expectation that the presidents will discuss more concrete ways to expand integration, including the possibility of creating or restructuring a South American cooperation mechanism, which brings together all the nations in the region. Currently, there is no block with these characteristics. The Union of South American Nations (Unasur), created in 2008, during President Lula’s second term, has been disintegrating over time, amid changes in governments in several countries, and now brings together only seven of them: Venezuela, Bolivia , Guyana, Suriname, Peru, as well as Argentina and Brazil], who recently returned to the group. Brazil also returned to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) this year, but the bloc is broader than the South American borders. “As you know, in recent years, there has been a kind of fragmentation in this purely South American concert. The purpose of this initiative is to unite, once again, the region with all of its countries”, emphasized the ambassador. According to her, issues such as health, climate change, high inflation and food prices, the return of poverty and hunger make more coordinated action among the countries of South America even more relevant. Informal “retreat” The methodology of the meeting foresees, in the first place, the meeting of common points from the presidential positions, as well as the conduction of an agenda that could already be started more quickly. This agenda includes, for example, the fight against organized crime, infrastructure projects, the environment and climate change, among others. Because of this, the format of the dome will be as little protocol as possible. The invitation sent to neighboring countries even spoke of a kind of “retreat” of presidents to deepen the dialogue. There will be two sessions. On Tuesday morning, each head of state will make a speech, with a free theme. After that they have lunch. In the afternoon, they resume the conversation for an informal dialogue, “in a freer and more relaxed work session”, as described by Gisela. The presidents who remain in Brasilia on Tuesday night will attend a dinner hosted by Lula at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence. Not even a final declaration of the meeting is foreseen, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Itamaraty Palace has not yet confirmed the likely bilateral meetings that President Lula will have with some of his counterparts present at the summit, but they could take place as early as Monday (29th), when the delegations begin to arrive in Brasília.
Agência Brasil
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