Argentine President Alberto Fernández welcomed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Buenos Aires today for a day of bilateral meetings and signing of an 82-point joint declaration outlining the multiple areas in which the two nations intend to revitalize their cooperation. There was great enthusiasm and anticipation from the Argentine side about the Lula trip, which took place on the eve of the Jan. 24 heads of state meeting of the 33-nation Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which Lula will also attend.
As Lula stated after the two leaders had finished signing several agreements, “today we are recovering a relationship that should have never been broken.” Under the 2018-2022 Brazilian government of neocon President Jair Bolsonaro, the bilateral relationship was badly damaged, as were Brazil’s relations with CELAC—Bolsonaro withdrew from it—and with other Ibero-American integration organizations. Lula and Fernández have vowed to resuscitate the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and revitalize the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), but there was no mention of the BRICS during their public discussions—despite the fact that Argentina has formally applied for membership in the five-country group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
Following a personal bilateral meeting this morning, Lula and Fernández were joined by their foreign and finance ministers and each other’s ambassadors to finalize details on the specific agreements to be signed. Relevant ministers signed Letters of Intent for bilateral cooperation in the areas of defense, science and technology, health, economic and financial integration, energy, education, culture and Antarctic cooperation. In a joint document signed by the two Presidents and published in the Argentine daily Perfil Jan. 22, the two also emphasized that reindustrializing their economies, building joint infrastructure projects and cooperating in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and in the space sector were high priorities.
