The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, invited his counterparts from the continent to a summit on May 30 in Brasilia, to reactivate the “cooperation agenda”, after years of paralysis in the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). .
The appointment will mark the formal return of the main Latin American power to the regional bloc, as Lula, a staunch defender of the political alliance between their countries, promised during the campaign. Brazil had left the block in 2019, by order of the then far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
“The meeting aims to promote a frank dialogue among all, with a view to identifying common denominators, discussing perspectives for the region and reactivating the South American cooperation agenda in key areas,” the Foreign Ministry reported in a statement on Friday, without explicitly mentioning the Unasur, which has existed since 2008.
Union for “Social Justice”
Among these key areas, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry mentioned “health, climate change, defense, combating illegal transnational corporations, infrastructure and energy, among others.”
“It is imperative that we once again see South America as a region of peace and cooperation, capable of generating concrete initiatives to face the challenge, which we all share and aspire to, of sustainable development with social justice,” Lula himself said, according to the report. release.
The recent arrival to power of progressive and leftist presidents in various countries in the region, such as Brazil, Chile or Colombia, has led to the reactivation of the bloc, according to experts. Argentina also recently sealed its return to the mechanism.
Unasur suffered a significant weakening with the turn that the region had towards right-wing governments in recent years. Between 2018 and 2020, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay withdrew from the block; Furthermore, Peru suspended its participation. with RT