(AFP) – President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday hailed a positive three-hour meeting in Washington, as the ideological opposites sought to smooth tensions. Leftist Lula, 80, who grew up dirt poor, and right-wing billionaire Trump, 79, have clashed before over everything from tariffs to Trump’s bid to exert US dominance over the Americas.
However, both men beamed in photos after a meeting that dragged long past its scheduled time, as they worked to find common ground on thorny issues affecting the two biggest economies in the Americas. “Just concluded my meeting with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the very dynamic President of Brazil. We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs. The meeting went very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. Despite sometimes prickly diplomatic ties, Trump has often spoken warmly of the charismatic leftist.
Lula said he was “very, very satisfied” with the meeting. “I always feel that a photograph is worth a great deal. And you surely noticed that President Trump smiling is better than him looking grumpy.”
– Tense Brazilian election –
The lengthy meeting came as a boost for Lula, who is facing a tight election in October against Flavio Bolsonaro — the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, a close Trump ally. The veteran leftist is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term in office. Trump hit Brazil with steep tariffs on all its products in July as punishment for what he called a “witch hunt” against Jair Bolsonaro — now serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup. Those tariffs were eased after the two leaders held a first meeting in Malaysia and established diplomatic contact.
Lula said he did not believe that Trump would “have any influence on the Brazilian elections.” “I think he will conduct himself like a president of the United States, allowing the Brazilian people to decide their own destiny,” said Lula. Lula once said that Trump wants to be “emperor of the world,” and has slammed the US removal of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and the war it launched alongside Israel against Iran. He told journalists that the US leader “isn’t going to change his personality just because of a three-hour meeting with me. What I made a point of telling him was my perspective on things I believe far more in dialogue than in war.”
“He thinks the war (in Iran) is already over. That’s not the reality. But that’s what he thinks and, you know, I’m not going to sit there arguing with him over his view of the war. He thinks everything in Venezuela is all sorted out.” Lula said he had cracked a joke with Trump, asking him not to revoke the visas for Brazil’s football team before the World Cup because “we’re coming here to win.” “He laughed,” said Lula.
– UN reform, organized crime –
Lula said he discussed the reform and expansion of the UN Security Council at length. Security is the main concern of Brazilian voters ahead of the election and Lula and Trump discussed at length efforts to combat organized crime and customs cooperation. The two governments in April signed a deal to share information to combat arms and drug trafficking, such as X-ray data on containers traveling from the United States to Brazil.
Lula said Brazil was “prepared to form a working group comprising all the countries of Latin America and, perhaps, all the countries of the world, in order to create a powerful coalition to combat organized crime.” The two men also discussed Brazil’s vast reserves of rare earth minerals — crucial for the production of high-tech goods — which Washington is scrambling to invest in. The country holds the second-largest reserves of the critical elements in the world after China.
Late on Wednesday, Brazilian lawmakers advanced a bill that would incentivize mineral exploitation. It will next be debated in the Senate. “We have no particular preferences. Our objective is to forge partnerships — to collaborate with American, Chinese, German, Japanese, French, or any other companies — that wish to join forces with us to facilitate mining operations, process these materials, and generate the wealth that these rare earth elements offer us,” said Lula.
– Danny Kemp with Fran Blandy in Rio de Janeiro
© 2024 AFP
