Lula could receive Macron and Scholz as early as January, sources say

Lula could receive Macron and Scholz as early as January, sources say

President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could receive, as early as January, the first official visits from the head of state, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, said two sources following the negotiations Reuters . .

There are still no firm dates for the visits, which are being negotiated between Lula’s diplomatic teams and France and Germany and should only end after Lula takes office next Sunday.

Neither Macron nor Scholz are coming to the inauguration — Germany will be represented by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and France by a special envoy yet to be announced — but both received Lula in Europe, with treatment as head of state, still first the PT is officially a presidential candidate.

The visit in the first weeks of the new government is a sign of the recovery of foreign relations that Lula has been preaching since the election campaign, precisely with two governments, France and Germany, with which Jair Bolsonaro’s government has had constant friction, above all because of the environmental agenda. .

According to sources interviewed by Reuters, in the first quarter of the year Lula should also resume international travel, making the circuit of Argentina, the United States and China that he had planned before taking office.

So far Argentina is the only one to have a fixed date, between 23 and 25 January. Lula is expected to participate in the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and pay a bilateral visit to the country’s president, Alberto Fernandez.

According to one of the sources interviewed by Reuters, the trip to the United States is expected to take place in late January or early February, while the visit to China could take place in March.

After being elected, Lula has already announced that he intends to resume his travel abroad soon, and invitations have also been made for visits to Buenos Aires and European capitals, but the need to solve not only his team, but the budget for In his first year in government office, he thwarted plans beyond his presence at COP 27 in Egypt shortly after the election.

Lula’s inauguration next Sunday shows a dimension of international interest in the third term of a president who has made international relations one of the central points of his previous administrations. So far, 19 heads of state have confirmed their presence, the highest number to date, surpassing even the first inauguration of Lula, in 2003. Another 10 vice presidents or deputy prime ministers have also confirmed their presence, in addition to the heads of six countries and high-level representatives from 27 countries, including US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who will come to represent President Joe Biden.

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Source: Terra

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