Lula will have bilateral meetings with at least 9 heads of state; Milei is doubt

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva already has bilateral meetings scheduled with nine heads of state, as well as the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the director-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, over the five days he remains in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 Summit.

According to information from Itamaraty and Palácio do Planalto, “practically all” of the 55 delegations from countries and international organizations that will participate in the summit requested meetings with the Brazilian president — it is not clear whether the requests included Argentine Javier Milei, with whom Lula maintains a distant relationship.

Among the bilateral meetings there is a lunch with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, after the end of the second day of the G20 plenary sessions. The president had initially planned to accompany Biden on a visit to Manaus that the American will make on Sunday, but the difficulty of making their schedules compatible and the various bilateral requests to the Brazilian president prevented the trip.

As for the President of China, Xi Jinping, the 20th was reserved, in Brasília, for an official visit.

Lula will also receive the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, among others.

According to a source, there are still attempts to include other names on the president’s agenda.

Lula, who arrived in Rio on Thursday, will hold meetings throughout Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, after the end of the summit. The meetings should take place at the hotel where Lula is staying and at the Copacabana Fort.