The new foreign minister of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, affirmed this Monday, upon taking office, that his country returns “to the great stage of international relations” and assured that the policy for the region of the government launched yesterday “will be the ideology of integration” .
“I thank the President of the Republic (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) for the trust he placed in me to lead Itamaraty and carry out the foreign policy that will lead Brazil to the great stage of international relations”he said at the start of his speech.
The region was the note that was repeated the most during his presentation in front of nearly 400 seated guests and the same number standing in the Brasilia room of the Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
“Of all the absences of Brazil, the abandonment of Latin America and the Caribbean was the one that perhaps caused us the greatest damage; Brazil’s return to its own region will mean commitment and dialogue with all political forces,” express.
“Our ideology in the region will be the ideology of integration; we will give special attention to our strategic relationship with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, strengthening bilateral mechanisms and the implementation of projects of common interest”he added.
Two days after the end of a year marked by differences within Mercosur, mainly due to Uruguay’s willingness to promote bilateral agreements with China, Vieira insisted on the importance of solidifying the integration mechanism.
held that Mercosur must be to put “emphasis on the liberalization and facilitation of trade within the bloc” In addition to goals like “balanced external arrangements” and the “movement of people”in other aspects.
He said that the region “lost the ability to act together”, for which he promised to “recover the Union of South American Nations” (Unasur), and assured that one of his “immediate objectives” is to “invigorate” the Community of States Latin American and Caribbean (Celac).
Vieria also devoted attention to the return of relations with the African continent.
“Africa will be a priority again”, asserted.
The outgoing foreign minister, Carlos Alberto França, was present at Vieira’s inauguration in a gesture opposite to that of the person who appointed him, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who decided to leave the country instead of passing on the attributes of command to his successor.
“We were able to produce objective results,” said França, who began by listing measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic, and spoke of “health diplomacy,” once again distancing himself from Bolsonaro.
During the day, the career employees of the Foreign Ministry, as well as accredited journalists there, highlighted the climate of secrecy and the impossibility of “moving more freely”, in a “more accessible” way through the palace of diplomacy during the Bolsonaro government. .
França spoke of the role of Brazil in international forums without mentioning the departure of some of them, such as Celac and Unasur, critical points of the outgoing management in foreign policy that Vieira, indirectly, was in charge of criticizing.
Vieira, a diplomat with almost 50 years of career, in which he held the position of ambassador of Brazil in Argentina, the United States and the United Nations, especially thanked Celso Amorim, who was chancellor in the governments of the Workers’ Party (PT). of Lula between 2003 and 2011.
The new Lula official defined the president’s diplomacy in his previous terms as “an active and haughty foreign policy” that “led and elevated Brazil to an unprecedented place.” and that its purpose is to help you get it back.
The definition of the world also recognized that it is not the same as that of those years.
“The good news is that with Lula Brazil is back,” he said confidently.
