The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived in Argentina this Sunday night on an official visit that includes the signing of bilateral agreements and meetings with President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner. He will also participate in the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), marking the return of the neighboring country to that forum.
Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero received Lula, who traveled accompanied by a large entourage, including important officials, at the Jorge Newbery Aeroparque Military Air Station in Buenos Aires.
Among those who received the Brazilian president was also the Argentine ambassador in Brasilia, Daniel Osvaldo Scioli.
Lula da Silva arrived in Argentina
The Brazilian Air Force plane touched down in Argentina shortly after 9:00 p.m. and around 9:20 p.m. Lula descended the ladder, to be received by the official Argentine delegation and the fanfare of the Grenadier Regiment.
Before leaving for Buenos Aires, Lula appointed vice president Geraldo Alckmin, who will be in office until Wednesday, as interim president, and wished him “good work.”
Later he tweeted: “We embarked to Argentina, then Uruguay. Tomorrow I participate in the Celac. Let’s renew ties. Brazil returns to the international scene and will work to strengthen Mercosur”.
Upon arrival, Lula and the Brazilian and Argentine officials quickly withdrew surrounded by a security operation.
“He will have a great program ahead of him,” announced Ambassador Scioli. “Tomorrow it will have a very active agenda, with a joint declaration that indicates all the objectives for this new stage of relaunching and strengthening the strategic alliance,” explained the Argentine diplomat and politician.
Fernández and Lula confirmed today, in addition, that they are advancing in the creation of a “common South American currency” within the framework of the “bilateral alliance”; They demanded “peace and democracy” and condemned “undemocratic extremism and political violence” in the region.
The presidents published a joint text in the Sunday newspaper Perfil, in which they indicated that they decided to “advance discussions on a common South American currency that can be used for both financial and commercial flows, reducing operating costs and our external vulnerability.”
And they urged to “simplify and modernize the rules and encourage the use of local currencies” in order to “overcome barriers” in exchanges.
Lula’s agenda, full
At 10:30 a.m., Lula, accompanied by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, placed a wreath at the monument to the Liberator General Don José de San Martín, in San Martín square located in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
Subsequently, the president received Lula for a bilateral meeting at the Casa Rosada.
At 12, both leaders will lead the signing of agreements for mutual cooperation in various areas and then will give a joint statement to the press in the White Room of the Government House.
At 3:00 p.m., Fernández and Da Silva will participate in a business meeting, together with ministers and heads of industry confederations from both countries, at the Bicentennial Museum.
And at 7:15 p.m. they will attend the inauguration of the photographic exhibition “Original Peoples-Warriors of Time”, by Ricardo Stuckert, and will witness the Concert of the Argentine-Brazilian Brotherhood, at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK).