President Joe Biden said that “democracy prevailed” after being severely tested in both the US and Brazil, during a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden said that “democracy prevailed” after being severely tested in both the US and Brazil, during a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“Both our nations’ strong democracies have been tested of late, very much tested, and our institutions were put in jeopardy,” Biden said Friday at the White House.
“We have to continue to stand up for democracy, democratic values that form the core of our strength,” he added. “This is an important moment for both our countries, in my view, and the world, quite frankly.”
The Oval Office sit-down, almost six weeks after Lula’s swearing in, is meant as a show of support for Brazil’s newly elected government and to demonstrate relations between the two biggest democracies in the Americas are back on track.
Biden, 80, and Lula, 77, are veteran politicians who share common progressive beliefs and have faced down similar challenges from their far-right predecessors on their paths to power.
The Democratic US president defeated Republican incumbent Donald Trump in 2020, only for Trump’s supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in an effort to overturn his loss. Lula, who previously served as president, last year ran and won as a left-wing challenger against then-President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump admirer. But last month, pro-Bolsonaro rioters stormed the capital of Brasilia in a failed attempt to oust Lula.
Lula said his predecessor despised international relations, and that his world started and ended with “fake news” in the morning, afternoon and night.
“Sounds familiar,” Biden quipped in response.
Biden said the two countries would “stand together to reject political violence.”
“We have to work together so that another invasion of the Capitol never happens again, so that the invasions of the powers that occurred in Brazil never happen again,” Lula said.
In addition to shoring up democratic institutions, the two leaders are likely to find common ground on climate change. During his campaign, Biden offered to work with international partners to create a $20 billion fund to protect the Amazon, which was subject to rapid deforestation under Bolsonaro.
Read More: Biden Pledges to Slow Destruction of Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest
The issue of funding did not come up in the public portion of the meeting, but Lula said his government is strongly committed to fighting climate change and pledged to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.
Yet their meeting could also expose differences, as Lula has indicated he will not abide by US orthodoxy on international affairs. The Brazilian leader has proposed a peace plan for Ukraine, with China serving as a potential mediator, that is anathema to Biden and Kyiv’s allies.
Lula also opposes US sanctions regimes imposed on Cuba and Venezuela, which Biden has shown little willingness to drop absent concessions from Havana and Caracas.
Adding to the tensions is the presence of both their former opponents in Florida, as they plot political comebacks. Bolsonaro has vacationed in the Sunshine State since Dec. 30, while Trump has based himself at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
While Biden has faced pressure from congressional Democrats to expel Bolsonaro, Lula was not planning to bring up the topic in the Friday meeting. The US government has taken a wait-and-see approach, hoping the former Brazilian leader leaves the country on his own.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.