President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended the return of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) as a mechanism for cooperation between the countries of South America. Lula is the host of a meeting with more than ten leaders of countries in the region, this Tuesday (30), at the Itamaraty Palace, in Brasília. The South American leaders responded to an invitation made by the Brazilian president, who seeks to resume cooperation within the continent in areas such as health, climate change, defense, combating transnational illicit acts, infrastructure and energy, among others. Presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and of Paraguay, Mário Abdo Benítez, at the Itamaraty Palace – Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil “And you don’t have to start over from scratch. Unasur is a collective asset. Let us remember that it is in effect and seven countries are still full members. It’s important to get your build process back on track, but in doing so it’s essential to critically assess what didn’t work and take those lessons into account.” “We need flexible coordination mechanisms that provide agility and efficiency in the execution of initiatives. Our decisions will only have legitimacy if taken and implemented democratically”, added the president, also defending that the involvement of civil society, unions, businessmen, academics and parliamentarians “will give consistency” to the integration effort. “Either the processes are built from the bottom up, or they are not viable and will be doomed to failure,” he said. The presidents Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Luís Arce (Bolivia), Gabriel Boric (Chile), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador), Irfaan Ali (Guyana), Mário Abdo Benítez (Paraguay), Chan Santokhi (Suriname), Luís Lacalle Pou (Uruguay) and Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela). The only absence at presidential level is that of Peru, whose President Dina Boluarte is unable to attend for constitutional reasons. Peru has been experiencing a political crisis since the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo at the end of last year. Dina Boluarte will be replaced by the president of the country’s council of ministers, Alberto Otárola. Despite proposing the strengthening of Unasur, Lula said that there are no preconceived ideas about the institutional design that could be adopted and that this meeting will serve to know everyone’s opinion. “I am, however, personally convinced of the need for a forum that allows us to discuss fluidly and regularly and guide the actions of our countries to strengthen integration in several of its dimensions,” he said, defending the creation of a high-level group level, to be made up of personal representatives of each president, “to continue the work of reflection.” “Based on what we decide today, this group will have 120 days to present a road map for South American integration,” he said. Reception protocols at the Itamaraty Palace began at 9 am. In the morning, Lula made the opening speech, followed by a working session with the intervention of all those present. In the afternoon, a more informal conversation between the presidents is planned, in a reduced format. At night, the heads of state who remain in Brasilia should attend a dinner offered by Lula and the first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence. During his speech, the Brazilian president also assessed that political and ideological divergences have hindered the process of integration with the continent in recent years. “We abandoned dialogue channels and cooperation mechanisms and, with that, we all lost”, he said. “I am firmly convinced that we need to revive our commitment to South American integration. The elements that unite us are above ideological differences”, he added, recalling that in August Brazil will also host the Summit of the Amazon Countries. Cooperation mechanism Since the beginning of his third government, Lula has been defending the improvement of relations between the countries of South America. In this context, Brazil returned to Unasur and also to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac). There is no confirmation whether the summit will release an official document at the end of the meeting, scheduled for 6 pm. 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 of the region. Currently, there is no block with these characteristics. Unasur, created in 2008, during President Lula’s second term, has disintegrated over time, amid changes in governments in several countries, and now comprises only seven: Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Peru, in addition to Argentina and Brazil who recently returned to the group. The president recalled that the continent already had and still has several initiatives aimed at articulating actions at the sub-regional level. “The Andean Community of Nations, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty and Mercosur illustrate this regionalism of wide scope and diverse purposes”, he said, also citing the advances made within the scope of Unasur. “For more than ten years, Unasur has allowed us to get to know each other better. We consolidated our ties through broad political dialogue that accommodated differences and allowed us to identify common denominators. We implement cooperation initiatives in areas such as health, infrastructure and defense. This integration also contributed to important commercial gains. We form a robust free trade area, whose figures reached a record value of US$ 124 billion in 2011”, he said. Lula also highlighted the reduction of inequalities and poverty, deforestation, and the group’s role as a forum for resolving disputes between countries in the region. “They were formidable achievements for a region that inherited colonialism and was marked by serious forms of violence, gender discrimination and racism. We didn’t solve all our problems, but we were willing to face them instead of ignoring them. And we decided to do this by cooperating with each other,” he said. The president recalled that the current context in the world is more challenging, with the lack of representation of global governance forums, the crises generated by the covid-19 pandemic, the urgency of climate issues, the retreat of multilateralism and the growing protectionist postures in rich countries, as well as conflicts like the war in Ukraine that affect supply chains. “The region stopped growing, unemployment rose and inflation rose. Some of the major social advances achieved in the past decade were lost in a short time, ”he said. “No country can face today’s systemic threats alone. It is only by acting together that we will be able to overcome them. Our region has solid assets to face this world in transition”, he added. Lula highlighted South America’s potential in terms of energy transition, food production, industrial development, promotion of peace and as a major consumer market. Proposals In his speech, the Brazilian president also made a series of proposals to be discussed throughout the day and considered by leaders in their initiatives: – place regional savings at the service of economic and social development, mobilizing development banks such as Banco de Development of Latin America (CAF), the Financial Fund for the Development of the La Plata Basin (Fonplata), the Bank of the South and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES); – deepening the South American identity also in the monetary area, through more efficient compensation mechanisms and the creation of a common reference unit for trade, reducing dependence on extra-regional currencies; – implement regulatory convergence initiatives, facilitating procedures and reducing bureaucracy for exporting and importing goods; – expand state-of-the-art cooperation mechanisms, involving services, investments, electronic commerce and competition policy; – update the project portfolio of the South American Infrastructure and Planning Council (Cosiplan), reinforcing multimodality and prioritizing those with high impact for physical and digital integration, especially in border regions; – develop coordinated actions to face climate change; – reactivate the South American Institute of Government in Health, which will allow us to adopt measures to expand vaccination coverage, strengthen our health industrial complex and expand services to needy populations and indigenous peoples; – launch the discussion on the constitution of a South American energy market, which ensures supply, efficient use of our resources, legal stability, fair prices and social and environmental sustainability; – create a regional mobility program for students, researchers and professors in higher education, something that was so important in the consolidation of the European Union; and – to resume cooperation in the area of defense with a view to providing the region with greater education and training capacity, exchange of experiences and knowledge in matters of military industry, defense doctrine and policies. Bilateral meeting Yesterday (30), the first South American head of government to arrive in the federal capital was the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who held a bilateral meeting with President Lula, at the Planalto Palace. The meeting marked the resumption of relations between the two countries; Maduro returns to Brazil after eight years. Due to political and ideological differences, the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro cut diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which were officially resumed in the current administration. Lula assessed that the reconstruction of relations between Brazil and Venezuela is complete and, among other issues, defended that the South American countries recover the region’s defense council, dedicated to cooperation for border security. There is still no confirmation whether Lula will hold bilateral meetings with other South American leaders.
Agência Brasil
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