The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called for the creation of a High Level Group with representatives of each member President of South America, which meets regularly to specify actions that promote and deepen regional integration processes.
The statement was made by the President during his speech on Tuesday at the summit of presidents and heads of state of the Union of Southern Nations (Unasur), which takes place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Brasilia, in the Itamaraty Palace, which seeks to deepen and reinvigorate Latin American integration.
“We must create a high-level group with representatives of the presidents to give effective answers, we have to present a map of South America. As long as we are not united we will not make Latin America a developed region”, he said.
In this regard, he indicated that “this group will have 120 days to integrate South America.”
In this sense, he stressed that “we are not prejudiced about the future, we want to dialogue and know the opinion of all of you, I am convinced that there is a forum to regularly guide the actions of the countries and guarantee integration.”
“As long as we are not united we will not be able to make a developed continent. We must leave strong roots for future generations, ”she stressed.
Permanent target integration
For Lula da Silva, “integration must be a permanent goal, we must leave strong roots for future generations, let’s not waste the world we built together. We must avoid spending more time on the periphery, integration is in our hands”.
He recalled that “we helped various countries to reduce hunger, colonialism in various forms of violence, we decided to do that by cooperating among ourselves, among South America. Unfortunately those advances stopped for a while.”
The Brazilian President considers that this is the moment to unite without wasting time, because “among the many things I have learned in politics, the presidential term is shorter than it seems, we are running out of time. We have to start from scratch.”
Power region: abandon indifference
Lula da Silva stressed that “in the 21st century we brought together the entire South American region and decided to create an organization that had a legal possibility, when we built Unasur, in this very palace.”
For this reason, he called for “understanding the importance of integration, we must abandon the indifference and isolation that we had among ourselves. We must build mutual trust.”
Lula highlights the effectiveness of Unasur
“We need initiatives for cooperation in health, defense. With Unasur we resolved conflicts with very good results. We helped countries define a profile and made efforts to avoid violence,” she added.
Unasur “was effective in resolving disputes between countries in the region, because good results were obtained in reducing deforestation, defense, and cooperation.”
He expressed his conviction that everyone’s commitment is needed to achieve true integration, recalling that “we have a history of resistance and combat.”
immediate actions
Among the most important to establish immediately, President Lula da Silva said: “We must build the South American identity, assuming that we have more challenging contexts than in the past. We are a peaceful region, and we need spaces united and supported by all”.
“South America once again has the opportunity to retake the flags of the union, we must resume that reconstruction process. Therefore, we must solve the problems that isolated us and have initiatives with democratic decisions, ”he emphasized.
Actions must be taken, Lula said, such as “democratizing exports of goods, expanding cooperation mechanisms. Update the project portfolio, updating digital processes, develop actions to face climate change, expand the health system, vaccines”.
Likewise, “expand attention to the most vulnerable peoples. Create programs for higher education, resume cooperation in defense areas for further education and training, have defense doctrines”.
In conclusion, the President of Brazil He stressed that “the commitment to regional integration must be revived. South America has become the center of Brazilian diplomatic action, that’s why this summit”.
Summit of Presidents of the South
With the participation of 12 South American nations that bring together the Meeting of Presidents of the South American countries, the high-level dialogue began this Tuesday in Brasilia, during which they will seek to strengthen regional integration with common denominators.
The opening words of this regional meeting were given by the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The heads of state of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela participate in the meeting.
The only country without presidential representation is Peru, since Dina Boluarte requires parliamentary authorization to leave the country. In her place, the president of the Council of Ministers will attend.
The southern meeting was convened by President Lula da Silva, who in early April formalized the return of his country to Unasur, a group made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
meeting agenda
The meeting consists of two main modules that will take place this Tuesday. In the morning session, the presidents will make considerations of a general nature and will discuss the perceptions and specific contexts of each country regarding the integration of South America, refers to a note from presidential press.
In the afternoon they will present and discuss specific cooperation initiatives with a South American scope, open to everyone’s participation, in key areas such as health, defense, physical infrastructure, energy transition, climate change, and the fight against transnational crimes, among others.
It is expected that, in the context of the agenda, a joint declaration will be offered in which the South American presidents will be able to report on the consensus reached.
