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This Sunday is planned the first meeting between Lula da Silva and Donald Trump since the American assumed his second presidential term.
It will take place in Malaysia, where the two are to participate in an international meeting on the environment.
At this point, the topic of the meeting attracts less attention from politicians and even Lula’s direct collaborators, as well as Brazilian analysts and observers, than the meeting between the two leaders.
Nobody ignores, nobody forgets, the importance of the issues that will be debated. But no one forgets or ignores the importance of the meeting between the two. After all, there are a series of very harsh, restrictive measures imposed by Washington on trade relations between the two countries.
As will be remembered, Lula, after a very quick meeting in passing, had a first conversation with Trump since he assumed his second presidency by telephone. He insisted that he would only admit one face-to-face convert, but he relented.
It was a long conversation, lasting half an hour, and at the end they changed their direct mobile phone numbers for other conversations, in an attitude considered friendly in both countries.
Now they will meet and talk live.
And there are many priority issues for Brazil. In addition to the enormous tariffs placed on Brazilian exports to the United States, there are restrictive measures imposed on members of the Supreme Federal Court, the highest court of justice in Brazil, the Venezuelan issue and how Lula’s government could help reduce tension both internally and externally, that is, in relations between Washington and Caracas and, incidentally, also speaking of Bogotá.
Although until yesterday, Saturday, the meeting between the two was not officially confirmed, in Brazil it was assumed that it would happen today. After all, both Lula and Trump mentioned it.
Speaking to Brazilian journalists last Friday, Lula said that there is no “veto on any issue” in the meeting he will have with Trump.
But he said that he would focus on the sanctions imposed on Brazil and Brazilians, with emphasis on the members of the highest court of justice. “I am convinced that we will be able to make a lot of progress in the negotiations and return to a civilized relationship like the one we have had for 201 years,” he said.
Still talking about the meeting, Lula avoided specifying what Brazil will be able to offer, but assured that he is willing to discuss and negotiate what his North American colleague puts on the negotiating table.
Furthermore, he highlighted once again that his priority concern is the tariffs imposed on Brazilian exports as punishment for the measures adopted by the Brazilian justice system against the unbalanced far-right and former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest and today does not have the slightest importance in the Brazilian political scene.
