MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula invites Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay to BRICS Summit

Lula also pledged to deepen Brazil's partnership with Uruguay

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva invited Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay to participate in the upcoming BRICS summit in July in Rio de Janeiro. The bloc, which includes Brazil, China, and India, represents 40% of the world's population. The summit will focus on reducing dependence on the US dollar and promoting local currencies in transactions.

 Lula emphasized the importance of including more countries in the dialogue to strengthen multilateralism and boost international trade. The invitation was made during Lula's visit to Montevideo for the inauguration of Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi. The summit aims to consolidate economic and political strategies and position South America as a key player in global alliances.

The Workers' Party leader insisted that the BRICS represented almost 50% of the world's population and a similar portion of the global GDP.

During his speech, the Brazilian head of state emphasized the need to create a joint document that reaffirms the commitment to free trade and cooperation among nations. “The BRICS are not a small thing. They have almost half of humanity,” he insisted.

Lula also pledged to deepen Brazil's partnership with Uruguay in priority areas such as South American integration, Mercosur, energy transition, and defense of democracy. “We will work together on the climate agenda,” he added.

Petro

Also on the sidelines of his inauguration, Orsi met with Colombian President Gustavo Petro. They spoke about “integrating Uruguay and Colombia in the highest level of technology.”

In that meeting, “a deep reflection was made on how to advance in the South American integration, an issue that in part is pending,” Uruguayan Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin explained.

“We talked about South American unity and about integrating Uruguay and Colombia in the maximum of technology, which is the sapience on technological development, algorithms and artificial intelligence”, said Petro.