Lula not to meet with Biden until early 2023

Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to go to the US to meet with US President Joe Biden only after inauguration, as reported Monday (Dec. 5) by Diplomat Celso Amorim, who served as foreign minister under Lula.

Last week, Lula had said he could travel to the US still this year after being certified by the nation’s top electoral courts next Monday (12)—a ceremony known as diplomation—but on Monday, during a meeting in Brasília with US Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Lula is quoted as saying “it may not be possible to go before the inauguration,” so the meeting should be slated for the beginning of 2023.

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After the assembly, Lula posted a photo with Sullivan and said he is “looking forward to going to the US.”

“Everything was discussed—especially the last G20 meeting and the need for a new world governance,” Amorim noted. Another issue Lula is said to have discussed with US officials was the need to include other countries in the United Nations Security Council.

According to Celso Amorim, Sullivan showed interest in cooperating with Brazil in the G20 to advance towards fairer global governance. The group brings together the world’s 19 largest economies and the European Union. “Talks lasted nearly two hours, concerning the role of the ties between the two countries on peace and democracy in South America,” he said. The former minister also said they did not discuss specific efforts, but rather the need for engagement between the two nations.

In addition to Lula and Sullivan, the meeting was attended by Juan Gonzalez, US government advisor for Latin America; Ricardo Zúñiga, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs; and Douglas Koneff, chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Brazil.

Also present, on the transition government’s side, besides Amorim, were Senator Jaques Wagner and former Education Minister Fernando Haddad.