Lula and Biden: Common Challenges and Potential Shared Efforts to Come
Rafael R. Ioris is a professor of Latin American History and Politics at the University of Denver and a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the WBO. This text was originally written for issue 54 of the WBO Newsletter, published on February 17, 2023. Fill in the form at the bottom of the text to access and subscribe to the WBO weekly newsletter in English.
Biden and Lula, the presidents of the largest democracies of the hemisphere met in Washington, D.C. on February 10 to plan future collaborations on a variety of issues. One of the main inspirations of the meeting was the attack on Brazil’s seats of power on January 8, which echoed events that took place in DC on January 6, 2021. It was then that Biden invited Lula to come to D.C., although Biden’s interest in working closely with Lula was already demonstrated in his quick recognition of Lula’s electoral victory on October 30, 2022, immediately after the results were announced. This move was key in deflating immediate putschist moves from Bolsonaro’s forces, though unfortunately this wasn’t enough to prevent last month’s violence in Brasilia.
Given the impromptu nature of the visit, as usually these gatherings are much longer in the making, speculations abounded about what the meeting could achieve. At the very onset of this deeply symbolic meeting of the two presidents that came to power after neofascists leaders ruined much of the image of their respective countries on the global stage, both Lula and Biden were ready to set a positive tone for both bilateral relations, as well as for joining forces for cooperatives multilateral initiatives. Lula started by saying that his predecessor had isolated Brazil, a nation that seeks now to reposition itself in the world and that believes that strengthening relations with the US is central in that process. Lula thanked Biden for his role in helping defend democracy in Brazil, which was reciprocated by Biden’s statement that both countries’ democracies had been attacked but have survived, and that, hence, they face very similar experiences and challenges.
Once the positive tone of the meeting was set, the two leaders got down to specifics. They had a long agenda involving at least initial conversations on matters of human and labor rights, gender and racial equality, areas in which they promised to joint efforts. Similarly, and not surprising, they pledged to work together to strengthen democratic institutions that included continuing conversations with other countries at the upcoming Summit for Democracy, which will be held next month. Moreover, on the climate front, Lula’s stated Brazil’s commitment to work with the global community to protect the Amazonian ecosystems and invited the US to help support the Amazon Fund. In response, Biden pledged that he would work with the US Congress to find these funds. Pledges to work together were also made in the areas of hunger and poverty, as well as in trade and economic cooperation.
“The main relevance of this meeting was in setting the path of new, more mature and globally oriented relations between the continent’s largest nations”
There was much expectation about whether the two presidents would be on the same page on the difficult topic of Ukraine, given that Lula had already stated, during a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Brasilia, that Brazil would not commit to providing weapons to support Ukraine’s war efforts. Although Lula did not change his views, both countries agreed to denounce the illegality of Russian’s actions against the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and Lula restated his willingness to lead a multilateral peace-making effort. In the end, Lula invited Biden to visit Brazil, an invitation that he readily accepted, especially in the context of the upcoming bicentennial celebrations of US-Brazil diplomatic relations in 2024.
All in all, this was not a meeting aimed at formalizing or announcing major new initiatives. Instead, its main relevance was in setting the path of new, more mature and globally oriented relations between the continent’s largest nations. Especially on the throes of the debacle of Bolsonaro’s attempted redirection of Brazil’s foreign policy largely towards becoming a junior partner of Trump, the balanced tone of the conversation is certainly significant. Biden came to power seeking to reestablish normalcy, after the tumultuous Trump Years. That goes for domestic as well as for foreign policies. Now that Bolsonaro is gone, Biden saw this important meeting as a great opportunity to deal with Brazil (but also Latin America) in more normal terms. This included discussing regular trade issues, immigration, as well as, especially in the case of Lula, the defense of democratic institutions in the hemisphere and beyond. So, although the meaning is a bilateral one, in some ways, it could be considered as a hemispheric meeting as Biden and Lula had the opportunity to discuss and, one hopes, address matters that are relevant to most countries in the continent.
Conversely, Lula saw the meeting as central for his goal of both sustaining constructive relations with the United States, as well as strengthening South American common projects. It would clearly be helpful to Brazil’s foreign policy, if the United States did not oppose its central goals. This approach worked well early in 2000s, when Lula was president and he managed to have good relations with the United States (even under Bush) and developed several common initiatives in South America. Now that Brazil, and much of South America, must deal with greater competition between the United States and China over the region, Lula is seeking to recreate good, but certainly not subordinate, relations with the Biden administration.
Lula was already seen in his first term in power as a global leader. Now, after the trauma of the Bolsonaro era, Lula's return is reassuring to much of the world that democracy can be rebuilt in Brazil and the Amazon can be protected. Lula's electoral victory offered Biden the opportunity to invite him to come to Washington to discuss issues that are important not only to Brazil and the United States, but also that really matter to the world as whole. In this sense, this was a successful meeting that set the stage for further collaboration, one hopes, between countries that share more than what meets the eye and that have lots to gain from working together.
