Brazil: Lula defends Mercosur and BRICS common currency again and signs agreements with Spain

By Guilherme Grandi

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) again defended the creation of common currencies for negotiations between countries that form economic blocs and signed three bilateral agreements with Spain in a ceremony held on Wednesday morning (26) in Madrid.

In an impromptu speech after a meeting with President Pedro Sánchez, Lula said he favored the creation of a “negotiation currency” between the countries of the economic blocs in which Brazil participates, such as Mercosur and the BRICS – a group that also includes Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

“I am in favor, in the case of Brazil and South America, that we create a currency to negotiate and trade, that here in the BRICS [a negotiation currency should be created] between our countries as the Europeans created the Euro.”

“We created the Brics Bank [New Development Bank], and we want it to become a big investment bank, if possible, bigger than the World Bank,” he said.

Earlier this year, Lula said he was studying the creation of a common currency with Argentine President Alberto Fernández, which would be used for transactions between the two nations to reduce dependence on the US dollar.

The reduction of the use of the US currency in international commercial transactions was also advocated by him during his trip to China almost two weeks ago.

Besides defending the creation of a new currency and Spanish investments in Brazil, Lula again criticized the previous government, saying that he is resuming relations “after a very bad period” in areas such as education, Amazon protection, climate change, food, popular housing, transportation, social programs, among others.

BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

Lula signed three bilateral agreements in education, labor, and science and technology.

The president said Brazil “has a debt of gratitude to Spain, the second investor country in Brazil, with more than a thousand Spanish companies and more than 15 million Spaniards or descendants.”

One of the agreements promotes the mobility of undergraduate and graduate students (master’s and doctorate) at any stage of training and of teachers between higher education institutions of the other signatory.

In another, it encourages the increase of labor productivity, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, and support for necessary reforms of union relations systems to encourage the membership of all workers.

Also, to establish the bases to achieve greater and better coordination of bilateral projects of development and technological innovation between Brazilian and Spanish companies, such as research in health, environment, and climate change, energy transition, food of higher quality and added value, new resources for Industry 4.0, cleaner or sustainable production, mobility, and advanced transport, information technologies and communications.

Lula said he plans to travel to South Africa to attend a meeting of the Brics and to Belgium to deal with a bilateral business with CELAC agendas.

President Lula has been in Spain since Monday (25) after a five-day trip to Portugal, where he attended a solemn ceremony at the Portuguese Parliament to commemorate the Carnation Revolution.

The president was the target of protests during his speech, among them from parliamentarians against the successive speeches in which he relativized the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Still on Wednesday (26), the president will meet with King Felipe VI and, in the late afternoon, will return to Brazil.

With information from Gazeta do Povo