Lula to receive 10 presidents at South American summit today
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will receive today, Tuesday, in Brasilia, the presidents of 10 South American countries in a summit to reactivate the dialogue on regional integration.
The meeting will be held at the Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, by the heads of state of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Of the South American heads of state, only the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, will be absent, as she will not be able to attend the meeting due to internal legal impediments and will be represented by the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola.
“The main objective of the meeting is to resume the dialogue with the South American countries, which has been very truncated in recent years and is a priority of Lula’s government”, assured the secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gisela Padovan, according to the official Agencia Brasil.
Despite the countries’ differences in vision and ideology, she added, “Lula wants to reactivate this dialogue with the countries based on common denominators”.
The leaders plan to discuss concrete ways of expanding integration, including possibly creating or restructuring a South American cooperation mechanism bringing together all the region’s nations.
The summit agenda also includes issues such as the fight against organized crime, infrastructure projects, the environment, and climate change.
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