Biden, Brazil’s Lula vow relationship reboot at meet

• Joe Biden and Lula de Silva have pledged to restart bilateral ties.
• By promoting democracy and addressing climate change.
• Lula and Biden discussed their mutual objectives.

Joe Biden and Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, have pledged to restart bilateral ties by putting a strong emphasis on promoting democracy and addressing climate change.

The commitment was made on Friday at a meeting between the two leaders at the White House.

It was their first encounter since Brazilian President Lula, also known as Lula, assumed office in January to replace far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.

During the meeting, Lula and Biden discussed their mutual objectives, and Biden agreed to return to Brazil.

The atmosphere was very different from that of Bolsonaro’s administration, who had tight links to Biden’s predecessor, former US President Donald Trump.

Without specifically mentioning Bolsonaro, who acquired the moniker “The Trump of the Tropics” for his aggressive demeanour and penchant for spreading false information, Lula told reporters that Brazil “self-marginalized itself for four years.”

The former president’s world “began and finished with bogus news in the morning, afternoon, and at night,” according to Lula during the meeting’s open session.

It sounds familiar, Biden said, laughing.

After Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress, Supreme Court, and the presidential palace on January 8 in a call for the military to step in and remove Lula from office, the meeting was held just over a month later.

The incident was similar to how Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, hoping to reverse Biden’s triumph.

“Both our nations’ strong democracies have been tested … both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed,” said Biden who is set to host co-host the Washington-created Summit for Democracy, along with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, and Republic of Zambia.

“We have some issues on which we can work together,” Lula told Biden in turn.

“First is to never again allow” anti-democratic mob attacks, he said.