The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, took office this evening (2) highlighting his commitment to rebuilding Brazilian diplomacy. Promising to bring Brazil back to the “great stage of international relations”, the chancellor said that he will give special attention to rescuing ties with Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Foreign policy will once again translate into actions the vision of a generous country, with more social justice”, declared Vieira, chancellor in 2015 and 2016 in the second term of former president Dilma Rousseff.
Among the forums that the new government intends to reinforce, said Vieira, are the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
The Chancellor also assumed a commitment to the transition to clean energy and respect for international agreements on the environment. “This will require world-class environmental and climate diplomacy,” he declared. Vieira promised to take forward the proposal presented by Lula in November, at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP27), to organize a summit meeting on the Amazon in Brazil.
Despite the intention of the Brazilian government to resume the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, closed in 2019, but not yet ratified by several countries, Vieira said that he will maintain the dialogue with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the Brazil’s accession process to the group, which requires compliance with economic, political, environmental and social guidelines.
farewell
Unlike most inaugural ceremonies, the predecessor was present to hand over the office. In his speech, former chancellor Carlos França defended his management at the head of the portfolio. According to him, Itamaraty’s work in recent years has focused on tackling three urgent problems: the covid-19 pandemic, economic challenges and the climate axis.
Among its achievements, France highlighted the purchase of vaccines, both for covid-19 and for monkeypox (monkeypox). The former minister also defended the environmental management of the previous government, saying that Brazil signed agreements to stimulate the carbon credits market.
decisions
As one of the first actions taken by the new government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted the appointment of sociologist Sebastián Depolo Cabrera as Chile’s ambassador to Brazil. The process had been stalled for ten months because Depolo acted in the student protests in Chile in 2011, which, according to the previous government, would make its diplomatic activities in the country unfeasible.
Scheduled for 7 pm, the inauguration of the new chancellor was delayed by around 45 minutes because of the marathon conversations that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had throughout the day with heads of state and government who honored yesterday (1st) the presidential inauguration ceremony.
Watch the ceremony in full:
