Africa Day speech by President Lula, in the presence of Benin’s President Patrice Talon

Brazil and Africa are united in grief over the deaths and destruction caused by the heavy floods in Rio Grande do Sul and in Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania.

I would like to express our solidarity and thank the messages of support we received from our African brothers.

My dear friends,

It is a pleasure to have the African diplomatic corps at this lunch in honor of Africa Day—and an honor to have the president of Benin, Patrice Talon, as our special guest.

In Uidá, President Talon's hometown, stands one of the "gates of no return" that exist on the African coast. They were given this name because it was believed that whoever passed them through would never return.

Surviving the inhuman conditions imposed by slavery, some managed to return, taking a little bit of Brazil with them.

Benin is home to one of the largest communities of "returnees" on the continent, full of Souzas, Silvas, Santos and Carvalhos.

Those who remained here put down roots in our identity, making Brazil the country that harbors the world’s third largest black population.

We cultivate our common history at the House of Benin in Salvador, and we are going to do the same at the House of Brazil in Uidá, creating a vibrant cultural hub there.

Today we established a memorandum of understanding on arts, culture and heritage in order to preserve that link.

Our bonds were forged from suffering, but today they serve to shorten the distance between the two sides of the "river called the Atlantic"— an apt expression by diplomat Alberto Costa e Silva, who died last year.

It is the people who bring the banks of this river closer together. These are the more than two hundred Beninese students currently enrolled in the Student-Covenant Program who have chosen Brazil to graduate.

They are interested in historical tourism, which will be facilitated by the memorandum on tourism and the addendum to the agreement on airline services that we signed today.

They are also the business people we count on to expand and diversify our agenda for trade and investment.

Finally, it is the technicians who have the mission of maintaining and expanding the legacy of one of Brazil's most successful cooperation programs, which has benefited the cotton sector in Benin and 17 other African countries.

I am sure that this exchange will grow with the reopening of the Beninese embassy in Brasilia and the creation of a Brazilian cooperation center for the whole continent in Addis Ababa, where agencies such as ABC, EMBRAPA and Fiocruz will stand permanently.

It is in this spirit that, at the invitation of the African Union, we will be hosting the Regional Conference of the Diaspora and Afro-descendants of the Americas and the Caribbean at the end of August in Salvador.

Brazil has a lot to learn and contribute to the debates on memory, restitution, reparation and reconstruction.

The strengthening of bonds between Africa and its 6th region, of which Brazil is a proud member, could become a positive vector of support for Haiti.

With Kenya and Benin taking the lead in the UN police mission, we reaffirm our commitment to Haitian stability and prosperity, and are available to offer logistical support to the operation.

At a time when attention is focused on Ukraine and Gaza, we must not let the world forget Haiti or other humanitarian tragedies such as the one in Sudan.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The talented Brazilian historian José Flávio Sombra Saraiva—who left us a few days ago—said that Brazil had become "Africa's spokesperson in the international system".

We do not claim to speak on behalf of anyone. But we are Africa's natural partners and we also see the world through African lenses.

This leads us to incorporate the continent's perspective into our global actions, as we are doing in our presidency of the G20.

Together with the African Union, which is participating for the first time as a full member of the group, we have been warning about the problem of debt.

What we see today is an absurd net export of resources from poorer countries to richer ones.

It is impossible to invest in education, health or adaptation to climate change if a significant part of the budget is consumed by debt servicing.

In June, the G20 Financial Architecture Working Group will host a debate with African experts, the results of which we will take to the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting.

If the planet's 3,000 billionaires paid 2% tax on the income from their fortunes, we could generate enough resources to feed the 340 million people who, according to FAO, face severe food insecurity in Africa.

Many developing countries have already formulated effective policies to eradicate hunger and poverty.

Our goal at the G20 is to mobilize resources to expand and adapt them to other realities.

That is why we invite African countries to join our Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty, which will be open for membership from July.

We are determined to support Africa in developing its immense agricultural potential.

We recently joined the African Development Bank's Lusophone Compact, which aims to support African entrepreneurs and boost their productive capacity.

Although we are not historically responsible for climate change, we need to fight together for the expansion of funding targets at the Baku COP and the adoption of more ambitious NDCs at the Belem COP in 2025.

In last August, the other Amazonian countries, along with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, launched the declaration "United for our Forests".

Brazil is working on the design of a mechanism - the Tropical Forests Forever Fund—to remunerate developing countries that keep their forests standing.

We reiterate our request that more African countries join the declaration and consider joining the fund.

Just as in the case of forests, we have to approach the issue of energy transition from our own interests.

Without adding value to natural resources, we will be doomed to re-establish the relationship of dependence between North and South.

The international order requires institutions capable of responding to today's challenges.

In September, we will hold a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New York, open to all UN members, to launch a "call to action" for the reform of global governance.

It makes no sense for Latin America and Africa not to have a permanent representation on important bodies such as the Security Council.

We cannot allow this kind of anomaly to also become the norm in the treatment of Artificial Intelligence.

What is needed is a governance model capable of containing the risks of this technology and facilitating access to these benefits for the Global South.

Dear friends,

In February, I had the honor of speaking at the African Union Summit.

I took the message that Brazil was once again walking alongside Africa.

My mission in life has always been and still is to fight inequality.

Latin America and Africa have to face up to the injustices that, inside and outside our countries, continue to reproduce exclusionary logics.

After all, as the Nigerian Chinua Achebe said, if you don't like a story, you can write your own.

So I invite you all to make a cheer for our illustrious guest and wish you all a happy Africa Day.

Thank you very much.