Lula said he left the meeting with Trump very satisfied: “important for Brazil”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Thursday afternoon (7) that he left “very very satisfied” from the meeting he had earlier with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. “It was an important meeting for Brazil, it was an important meeting for the United States”, he added.

During Lula’s press conference at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington DC, the Brazilian said that he left the meeting very optimistic, that Trump said he likes Brazil a lot and even commented on the photo of the two at the end of the meeting, in which the American appears smiling: “President Trump laughing is better than frowning.”

Lula also said he had joked with Trump about the football World Cup, which will have the United States as one of the venues. The PT member said he said he hopes the US does not cancel visas for Brazilian national team players. Asked about Trump’s response, Lula said: “He laughed because now he will always laugh, he learned that laughing is very good.”

Subjects covered

According to Lula and the ministers who participated in the meeting, during the approximately three hours of conversation, the topics of trade and tariffs, international cooperation in the fight against organized crime and critical minerals were discussed. The Brazilian also said that he defended a reform in the UN Security Council.

Before Lula began speaking, the ministers who participated in the meeting gave brief reports on the topics discussed in their areas and were unanimous in evaluating the meeting in a very positive way. “Friendly atmosphere”, “excellent meeting”, “very successful” and “extremely optimistic” were some of the ways they defined the meeting.

As for critical minerals, Lula said he explained the current scenario in Brazil, including the approval of a new law on the subject by the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday night (6). And the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, did not elaborate, but hinted that there must be American investments in Brazil in this area.

On the topic of tariffs, Brazilians showed Americans that Brazil already has a deficit in trade with the USA and that it therefore makes no sense to overtax Brazilian products. According to Lula, there was some disagreement and that is why it was proposed to create a working group and teams from both countries will meet again in 30 days.

Regarding the fight against organized crime, Lula defended the creation of a group of countries to act on this issue. The Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, said he had spoken about the importance of financially stifling criminal organizations.

Topics not discussed

Aside from defending the reform of the UN Security Council, Lula denied having discussed issues involving other countries in depth: “I came here especially to discuss Brazilian issues,” he said, adding that he is willing to talk about any country that the US wants to talk to.

The president of Brazil also stated that he did not talk to Trump about elections, neither in Brazil nor elsewhere.

There was still an expectation that the presidents would talk about Pix, which Americans see as a risk to the financial system, but Lula said that the topic was not addressed: “He didn’t touch on the subject of Pix, so I didn’t touch it either.”

Lula handed documents to Trump

Lula reported having handed two documents to Trump during the meeting. The first was the list of Brazilian authorities who are still under US sanctions, with their US entry visas revoked. Among them are the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, and his 10-year-old daughter.

Despite not having spoken about the war in Iran, Lula also said that he handed over to Trump the 2010 nuclear weapons non-proliferation agreement, which was signed by Iran and created by Brazil. Trump reportedly said he will read it tonight.