MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian President announces alliance with Indonesia and Congo

With his previous experience as president, Lula said that “we will do more in four years -proportionally more- than we did in eight years.”

In an exclusive TV interview marking his first 100 days in office, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Monday (10) that he will meet in June with his colleagues from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia to launch an alliance between the countries that hold the largest rainforests on the planet, Agencia Brasil reported.

“I already have, in June, a commitment with Congo, which is inviting Brazil and Indonesia to hold a great meeting of the three countries that have the largest green forest in the world,” said the president.

The creation of the alliance had been announced during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), held in Egypt last year, and attended by Lula, then president-elect.

The objective of the coalition, according to the Brazilian government, is to value the biodiversity of the countries and promote fair remuneration for the ecosystem services provided by the three nations - especially through native forest carbon credits.

The alliance signals to the international community that the issue of conservation and sustainable use of this environmental asset must be led by those who own the world's main forests.

Lula said that it is necessary to involve other South American countries that also hold portions of the Amazon Rainforest and added that he would suggest the Congo government extends the invitation.

On climate change, the president argued that Brazil will play an even more central role in world geopolitics. “Now, with the climate issue, the potential for negotiation with Brazil has increased a lot. Brazil has the largest area of tropical forest.”

“It is no sin to want to exploit in the most intelligent way possible that which you can transform into wealth for the country. This is how we are going to deal with the Amazon issue in our international relations,” he added.

With his trip to China rescheduled for this week, the president spoke about the resumption of a strong relationship between the two countries, which was “dampened” in recent years and will be rescued. The Asian country is Brazil's largest trading partner.

“We will consolidate our relationship with China, I will invite [President] Xi Jinping to come to Brazil, to meet Brazil in a bilateral meeting, to show [him] the projects of interest. What we want is to build a partnership with the Chinese, to build a society with the Chinese, so that they can invest in things that don't exist, a new highway, railroad, hydroelectric plant, something that means something new for Brazil,” Lula said.

The head of state also cited the strategic partnership with neighboring South American countries and again advocated strengthening the regional relationship. “It doesn't matter if Brazil is rich with poor neighbors. We want everyone to grow on equal terms,” he said.

The president also spoke of the importance of resuming strategic relations with Africa, with expanded diplomacy, and science and technology transfer.

“The experience is that I can do more things, faster, I can produce more than in the other mandates because you have a learning process of two mandates. We will do more in four years, proportionally more, than we did in eight years,” he insisted.

In relation to the mark of 100 days in office, Lula highlighted the effort to put up social programs that had already been adopted by previous governments, but that the obsession for the next period is job generation.

“If making social policy in the first three months was important, now the obsession is to generate jobs,” he said.

”And generating jobs means making the economy grow. For the economy to grow, we must have either money from the budget or financing. We have to use the State's tax collection capacity, the financing capacity of the public banks, and the capacity of building PPP [Public Private Partnerships], so that entrepreneurs and the government can together build the great works that are missing for Brazil. That is why I am very optimistic.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)