MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula attending G7 Summit this week

It will be Lula's eighth G7 Summit although Brazil is not a member of the group

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be attending this week's G7 Summit in Borgo Egnazia at the invitation of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni with a mission to focus on social inclusion and climate change, Agencia Brasil reported.

The South American country is currently the 8th economy in the world but not a member of the elite group bringing together the alleged seven strongest countries on the planet: Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Hence, Lula will be making a guest appearance at the event. Until 2014, Russia was part of the group - then known as the G8 - but was expelled due to the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. G7 summits are usually also attended by guest countries. Argentine President Javier Milei also plans to be there between June 13 and 15, according to Casa Rosada sources.

En route to the gathering, Lula will make a stop in Geneva, Switzerland, to take part in the International Labor Organization (ILO) conference, which began on June 3 and runs until June 14.

It will be Lula's eighth G7 Summit. The first six took place during his first two terms in office, between 2003 and 2009. Brazil had not attended a meeting of the group since then. The Brazilian president's seventh participation was last year, at the summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

Since last year, the Brazilian government has been in dialogue with the Italian authorities, as they both hold the rotating presidencies of the G20 and the G7. The G20 brings together 19 of the world's largest economies, plus the European Union and the African Union.

At the G7, Lula is expected to defend Brazil's G20 agenda of social inclusion and fight against inequality, hunger, and poverty; while tackling climate change, with a focus on the energy transition, and promoting sustainable development in its economic, social, and environmental dimensions; and defending the reform of global governance institutions, which reflects the geopolitics of the present.

Global taxation of 2% of the income of the super-rich is also on Brazil's agenda as chair of the group. The proposal was presented for the first time in February, at the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank presidents in São Paulo. Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said at a G20 meeting in the United States in April that he expected an agreement will be achieved by the November Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Haddad discussed these issues with Pope Francis.

Taxing up to 2% of the income of the planet's largest fortunes is seen as an opportunity to reduce social inequality and combat the effects of climate change. Recently, Haddad said that the proposal is gaining the support of several countries and could be included as a recommendation in the reforms proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).