Lula’s address to CELAC “Nothing should separate us, since everything brings us together” : Peoples Dispatch

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addressed the Seventh CELAC Heads of State Summit. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert

Brazil’s much-anticipated return to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was celebrated on Tuesday, January 24, during the bloc’s seventh summit. In his opening address to the summit, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez highlighted Brazil’s withdrawal. Block and emphasized that “a CELAC without Brazil is a very empty CELAC”.

Fernandez received Lula at Casa Rosada, the seat of the Argentine government, on Monday 23 January, and the two leaders defended the resumption of diplomacy and cooperation between South America’s two largest economies.

Brazil abandoned CELAC during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a measure that Lula classified as “inexplicable”.

In his speech, the Brazilian President defended points that could contribute to regional integration and cooperation towards a “peaceful world order”, such as the ability of Latin American and Caribbean countries to participate in the energy transition.

Read Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s full speech below:

Dear friend Alberto Fernandez, President of Argentina, Temporary President of CELAC and World Football Champion, who welcomes us in Buenos Aires,

Dear friends of the Heads of State and Government of the countries that make up our region, and our friends present here,

Com Alberto Fernández As luck would have it, my first activity outside the country in this new mandate was in Argentina, and for a summit meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations.

In my first speech after the election results, I said that Brazil is returning to the world. Nothing could be more natural than starting this route of withdrawal through CELAC.

During successive Brazilian governments since redemocratization, we have worked hard and based on a relationship marked by dialogue and cooperation with a sense of mission towards regional integration and the consolidation of a peaceful region. The unfortunate exception was in recent years when my predecessor made the inexplicable decision to withdraw Brazil from CELAC.

During my first two mandates, I was dedicated to the task of building a Latin America based on the bonds of faith that I see gathered here today around this table.

It is with great pleasure and special satisfaction that Brazil is back in the region and ready to work side by side with all of you in a spirit of solidarity and closeness.

Today I renew with emotion the spirit that animated us in 2008, when we hosted in Costa do Soipé, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, the first Latin American and Caribbean Summit, which three years later took the form of this community. will develop into ,

That meeting had a historical meaning that is still very relevant. Because it was the first time that heads of state and government from Latin America and the Caribbean came together without any foreign patronage to discuss our problems and seek our own solutions to the challenges we share.

This spirit – of solidarity, dialogue and cooperation – could not be more current and necessary in a region of the size and importance of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The world is passing through several crises: pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, pressures on food and energy security, threats to representative democracy as a form of political and social organization. All this against an unacceptable backdrop of rising inequality, poverty and hunger.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have stood up for Brazil and Brazilian institutions in the face of the undemocratic acts that have taken place in Brasilia over the past few days. It is important to emphasize that we are a peaceful region that rejects extremism, terrorism and political violence.

Most of these challenges, as we know, are global in nature, and require collective responses. We do not want to import region specific rivalries and problems. On the contrary, we want to be part of the solution to the challenges that everyone has.

CELAC has advanced and collaborated in the recent period to prove the importance and potential of this system. I am very pleased to note how much has been built during the recent Presidencies of Mexico and Argentina, which coincide with one of the most difficult international periods.

CELAC acted quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the formation of plans to strengthen production capacity for vaccines and medicines.

CELAC has not shied away from the challenges of food security, energy security and climate change.

I believe that, with a pragmatic spirit and based on cooperation with specialized organizations and agencies, such as FAO, WHO, and ELAC, among many others, we have much to contribute to each of these issues.

In the energy sector, we have very unique capabilities to participate in a beneficial way in the global energy transition. We have a diverse energy matrix and there is potential for growth in renewable and clean energy.

Furthermore, our regions are home to some major biomes; We have strategic natural resources, such as vital minerals; We preserve a significant portion of the planet’s biodiversity; And we are a powerhouse in aquifer resources, the key to humanity’s future.

At COP27, in Egypt, I announced that Brazil would soon host a summit of the Amazon countries. Cooperation that comes from outside our region is very welcome, but it is the countries that are part of these biomes that should lead the initiative to take care of the Amazon. That’s why it’s important that we value our Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization – ACTO.

Brazil recently presented the candidature of Belem do Para to host COP-30 in 2025. The support we are getting from CELAC countries is indispensable for us to show the rest of the world our biodiversity richness, potential and potential for sustainable development. Green economy, and of course, the importance of protecting the environment and fighting climate change.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The region has a clear contribution to building a peaceful world order based on dialogue, strengthening multilateralism and the collective construction of multipolarity.

We look forward to the development and intensification of dialogue with extra-regional partners such as the European Union, China, India, the Asian and, in particular, the African Union.

my friends

The various crises we are facing in the world today demonstrate the value of integration. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risks associated with our excessive reliance on inputs critical to the well-being of our societies.

This does not mean that we should shut ourselves off from the world. It only highlights that if we are well integrated in our region then this integration will be on better terms. We must join forces for better physical and digital infrastructure, for building value chains between our industries, and for greater investment in research and innovation in our region.

Our development strategy must go hand-in-hand with the reduction of inequality in its various dimensions, while reducing inequality in many other areas, including by guaranteeing fundamental rights in the fields of education, health and work. To grow in a sustainable way, we cannot continue to have unacceptable poverty and hunger rates, nor can we continue to live with the inequality and gender violence that affects half of our population. It is necessary to respect and protect our indigenous people who are still under threat and neglected. It is necessary to work so that the color of our skin no longer defines the future of our youth.

Nothing should separate us, because everything brings us together. Our Colonial Past. The intolerable presence of slavery that marked our highly unequal societies. authoritarian temptations that challenge our democracy even today.

but also the immense cultural wealth of our indigenous peoples and the African diaspora. Diversity of races, origins and creeds. Shared history of resistance and struggle for autonomy. All of this makes us feel part of something greater and fuels our search for a common future of peace, social justice and respect in diversity.

For this reason, I could not end without paying tribute to an extraordinary Brazilian who dedicated himself to rethinking our region, the Latin American and Caribbean community still a mirage.

Last October, Darcy Ribeiro, a public figure and one of our greatest thinkers, would have turned 100. After living in exile in the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the first to speak of our unity in diversity. it Patria Grandeand the special contribution to civilization that our region has to offer to the world.

Brazil is once again looking to its future with the certainty that we will engage with our neighbors bilaterally, in MERCOSUR, in UNASUR and in CELAC.

To Comrade Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who is occupying CELAC, I wish you all the best in the world.

It is with a sense of common destiny and belonging that Brazil returns to CELAC, with a sense of rediscovering itself.

thank you so much.

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