Brazil meeting of Amazonian countries to reactivate ACTO

Brazil will host a transcendental meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) in August to reactivate the group, which gathers the countries with Amazonian areas in their territory and which lost strength in the last years, official sources informed today.

In statements to the press, the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, assured that the meeting would be held in the Brazilian city of Belém and serve to define a single position for the region in the development and fight against the climate crisis in international forums.

“It is an important meeting because President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to coordinate with the other ACTO partners a vision of the Amazon countries on the Amazon,” Vieira said.

According to the Brazilian foreign minister, Lula intends to use this position agreed upon at the ACTO meeting for his speech at the United Nations General Assembly opening in September, where climate change should be a central part of his speech.

“He wants to convey a bit of the vision of all countries. The meeting should be promoted beforehand so that everyone contributes to a common policy to be made,” Vieira explained.

Resuming ACTO is one of Lula’s goals in his third term as president of Brazil.

The group has held virtual presidential meetings in recent years, but with less relevance, and with Brazil, the country with the most Amazonian territory, practically abandoning the group’s deliberations.

The idea is to use the instance to unify the discourses of the eight countries that make up the group and attract investments to the region within the policies of combating deforestation, protection of indigenous peoples, and development to strengthen the position before international organizations and developed countries, which are the most pressing for actions in the region.