President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated, this Tuesday (24), that Brazil will make “any sacrifice” to arrest the “corruption and drug trafficking tycoons”. The fight against organized crime will be one of the themes of the Lula’s meeting with the President of the United States, Donald Trumpwhich should take place next month in Washington.
“Our desire is to put the tycoons of corruption and drug trafficking in jail, and for that we will make any sacrifice,” said Lula in press interview in Seoulcapital of South Korea, where the president was received for a state visit.
“When I go to the United States, I will take the Federal Police, the Federal Revenue, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice with me and I will show them [Trump] that if he truly wants to fight organized crime, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, Brazil will be an excellent partner, because we have expertise in this with our Federal Police”, he added.
The full agenda for the meeting is being prepared and, according to the president, includes topics of interest to Brazil, multilateralism and democracy. “And he [Trump] He also has his agenda for me”, he highlighted.
Lula disembarked at Asia on the 18th and completed schedules at India and in South Korea.
Today, Lula highlighted that negotiations for a trade agreement between Korea and Mercosur will be resumed. They have been stopped since 2021.
“I reminded him [Lee Jae-Myung, presidente da Coreia do Sul] that it was very important, at this time when the return of unilateralism is being discussed, that we discuss this agreement again. He seemed very interested. We will set up commissions to start debating and, if everything goes well, we can conclude these agreements this year”, he summarized.
The expansion of the Mercosur-India preferential trade agreement is also priority for Brazilwith a view to free trade.
From Seoul, Lula headed today to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where he has a working meeting with the country’s president, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The president was asked about the tension in the Middle East in light of exchange of threats between the United States and Iran, but stated that the meeting with Al Nahyan will be on topics of interest to Brazil.
“I’m not going to discuss the war in Iran, I’m not a representative of the UN, I’m not on the Security Council as a permanent member of the UN. I’m going to discuss the commercial and political relationship between Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. I think we don’t need war, we need peace, we need investment, development, which is what will improve people’s lives,” he said.
Later this Tuesday, the presidential delegation will depart back to Brasília.
