Sunday January 22, 2023 | 9:48 p.m.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived in Argentina this Sunday to have a series of meetings with Alberto Fernández and on Tuesday to participate in the VII CELAC summit, which he will also arrive at, in the middle of a great controversy in the political circle of the country, the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro.
The Brazilian president arrived at the Military Air Station of the Jorge Newbery Airport after 9:00 p.m. This was announced by the official account of the Casa Rosada on Twitter with a video. Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero was in charge of receiving the president. He was accompanied by Daniel Scioli, the Argentine ambassador to Brazil.
Lula arrived with his entourage, including the foreign minister, Mauro Vieira; the Minister of Economy, Fernando Haddad and the main adviser on foreign policy, Celso Amorim.
“We shipped to Argentina, then Uruguay. Tomorrow I participate in the Celac. Let’s renew ties. Brazil returns to the international scene and will work to strengthen Mercosur ”, the president of Brazil had posted on his Twitter account when he left his country.
The meeting that Lula and Alberto Fernández will have in Buenos Aires is part of what the Argentine ambassador to Brazil called the “relaunch of the relationship between Argentina and Brazil”, after four years in which the political relationship was very complex due to ideological differences. between the President and former president Jair Bolsonaro.
It was precisely Scioli who was able to achieve a minimum of harmony between the two governments, decisive for the commercial relationship -the most important that Argentina has- to flow smoothly. This new stage with Lula in power is completely different. The political course of the new president is similar, in ideological terms, to that which the Peronist government seeks to impose on the country.
Since the government changed in Brazil, the view of the Casa Rosada has also changed. During the first talks between Scioli and Fernández, after Lula’s victory in the elections, the former motorboat asked to point “all the guns” at the neighboring country, demanding that special emphasis be placed on deepening economic and productive activity.
Scioli stated, during an interview with the Télam agency this weekend, that there is “enormous expectations and a renewed spirit throughout the Brazilian and Argentine business community.” In this sense, he remarked that “they have certainty, they have guarantees, and they have confidence.”
The ambassador’s voice is also that of Fernández, with whom they maintain a close relationship at a time when Peronism suffers from a deep internal crack. For this reason, in the last few hours, the former governor was in charge of clarifying in public the importance of the arrival of Lula da Silva in Argentina for the national government. He was the official voice.
Brazil has a growing economy with negative inflation and the change of command at the Planalto Palace opened the doors for the Fernández government to advance a new link with the neighboring country. The President’s idea remains the same. It is necessary to deepen the commercial integration of the two countries and one of the ways to do it is by having a close relationship around the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline.
“The start-up of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline has generated enormous interest in Brazil, in order to ensure that Argentina continues advancing in infrastructure and to be able to export more and more gas at more competitive prices than what they are buying,” said the ambassador.
There are two central axes in this topic. One is linked to the possibility that the pipeline reaches Brazil at some point. Another, perhaps the most important in this present construction of the work, is that the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) opens a line of credit to Argentina, with a suitable interest rate. Negotiations are well advanced and that would give new impetus to construction.
Before Lula’s arrival, Ambassador Scioli pointed out that there are many trade agreements “in energy, food, industry, infrastructure and financial integration”, which is why the government expects the volume of the trade relationship to grow. More exports and more investments. More insertion of SMEs in the Brazilian market.
The agenda
Lula will have a tight schedule. On Monday morning she will make a floral offering with the Chancellor at the monument of San Martín. She will then have a bilateral meeting with Alberto Fernández at the Casa Rosada, which will be extended when the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, Santiago Cafiero and Ambassador Scioli join, on the Argentine side.
Later, he will participate in the signing of bilateral agreements in the White Room of the Government House, in a forum of businessmen from both countries that will be held in the Bicentennial Museum, and in a meeting with representatives of Human Rights Organizations.
After that meeting, the Brazilian president will meet Vice President Cristina Kirchner, with whom he maintains a close relationship. Finally, he will participate in a cultural event under the name “Concert of the Argentine-Brazilian Brotherhood”, which will be held at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK).
