President Lula’s speech during the 64th Summit of Mercosur Heads of State and Associated States

I wholeheartedly thank President Santiago Peña and his team for the warm welcome conferred to my delegation and myself.

Returning to the city where the Mercosur was launched always motivates us to reflect about the state of our integration.

Less than fifteen days ago, one of our members suffered an attempted coup.

Democracy prevailed thanks to the Bolivian government’s firm stance, the mobilization of its people, and the repeal of the international community.

Once again Mercosur remained united in defense of the full validity of the rule of law, consecrated in the Ushuaia Protocol.

The unanimous response to the June 26 acts in Bolivia and the January 8 acts in Brazil demonstrate that there are no shortcuts over democracy in our region.

But we must stay vigilant.

False democrats have tried to undermine the institutions and put them at the service of reactionary interests.

As long as our region remains among the most unequal in the world, political stability will continue to be threatened.

Democracy and development walk side by side.

The good economists know that free market is not a panacea for humanity.

Those who know the history of Latin America recognize the value of the State as a planner and a development inducer.

In the globalized world, there is no sense in recurring to archaic and isolationist nationalism.

Nor is there a justification for retrieving ultraliberal experiences that can only aggravate inequalities in our region.

This is the nineteenth Mercosur Summit that I participate in as a head of State.

Never before had we been faced with so many challenges, either on the regional or the global level.

In the past years, we allowed conflicts and disputes —many times foreign to the region— override our calling for peace and cooperation.

We went back to being a balkanized and divided region that looks more to the outside than to itself.

In a context of growing geostrategic competition, the question before us is whether our countries wish to integrate to the world united or separately.

I do not see any contradiction between participating in the global economy and cooperating among neighbours.

My bet on Mercosur as a platform for Brazil’s development and international insertion stands "unshakable".

Our bloc is an ambitious project that has generated many fruits since its launch.

Trade among us has multiplied tenfold, currently reaching 49 billion dollars.

We must think big, like our ancestors dared to do in this capital city 33 years ago.

Mercosur will be what we want it to be.

We must not make it smaller through simplistic proposals that debilitate its institutions.

Our updating efforts must point in another direction.

We have an unfinished agenda that involves two important sectors of our economies, excluded from free trade.

The current advancements to include the automotive sector are still insufficient.

In the sugarcane sector, which encompasses biofuel development, we have been unable to move from theoretical discussions.

We need a deep regional integration based on qualified labour and the production of science, technology, and innovation to generate jobs and income opportunities.

The full membership of Bolivia has an enormous strategic value, making our bloc an essential player in the context of the energy transition.

We are rich in mineral resources and have abundant and cheap clean energy sources.

We have everything we need to become an important link in the semiconductors, batteries, and solar panels chain.

We can form an alliance of producers of critical minerals so that the benefits that derive from processing these resources can stay in our countries.

The regional governance of data in Mercosur is vital for our future sovereignty and for the development of Artificial Intelligence.

We must enable our region to develop its own capacity to collect, process, and store data, a fundamental input to advance technological development and digitalize the regional industry.

The bloc’s updating also implies having an ambitious foreign trade agenda.

During the Brazilian presidency, we signed a free trade agreement with Singapore, the first between our bloc and an Asian country.

Under President Santiago Peña’s leadership, a negotiation process with the United Arab Emirates was initiated.

The only reason we have not concluded the agreement with the European Union is because the Europeans have not been able to solve their own internal contradictions.

We are proud to be the first country in the bloc to ratify the Free Trade Agreement with Palestine. However, I cannot help but regret the context in which the Palestinian people are suffering the consequences of a totally irrational war.

I hope that this year we can deepen the dialog about an encompassing agreement with China.

Improving the Local Currency Payment System will be an important goal of the next pro tempore presidency.

A greater harmonization of the procedures adopted by our central banks for this kind of operation will reduce costs and particularly benefit our continent’s small and medium-sized companies.

The FOCEM continues to be a key instrument for the reduction of our disparities and asymmetries. We must take advantage of its full potential.

Last year, Brazil paid the totality of its debt with the Fund, securing a new round of projects.

We have already selected eight initiatives totaling 70 million dollars; they contemplate sanitation, productive development for the generation of jobs and income, urban mobility, and social infrastructure for Indigenous communities.

This is what makes a difference in peoples’ lives.

A pseudo “aggiornamento” that casts Mercosur away from its social basis can only weaken us.

Erasing the reference to gender in personal documents only worsens the violence suffered daily by women and girls.

In order to overcome scourges such as hunger, poverty, and inequalities, we must count on a strong Social Institute with the means to establish goals and take concrete measures.

The Human Rights Public Policy Institute must dispose of the necessary resources to support our countries in the complex task of guaranteeing rights and dignity.

Strengthening relations with PARLASUR will also contribute to the internalization and implementation of the bloc’s norms, while bringing different social segments closer.

We cannot come to each Heads of State Summit only to speak. We must also listen.

For this reason, Brazil advocates for strengthening the Social Summit, one of the main platforms for interaction with civil society. 

My friends,

The climate crisis is bringing us rapidly close to a catastrophic scenario.

In the past year and a half, we lived through historical droughts in the Amazon, the Pampas, and the Brazilian and Bolivian Pantanal, which also recently suffered with wildfires.

A few weeks ago, Rio Grande do Sul suffered great human and material losses with unprecedented floods that also impacted Uruguay.

In addition to thanking the solidarity of all the Mercosur partners who swiftly offered the most various types of humanitarian aid, I would like to call for greater climate engagement and ambition.

Mercosur’s adhesion, during this Summit, to the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in integral risk disaster management is most timely.

Our continent holds the world’s largest rainforest and freshwater reserves.

This year, at COP-16, in Cali, we will also demonstrate the magnitude of South American biodiversity.

Next year, Brazil will host COP 30 in Belém.

These will be opportunities for Mercosur and South America to present a collective vision about the challenges of sustainable development.

We have the moral authority to make ourselves heard and the historical responsibility to lead by example.

We have already reached the mid-term of the Brazilian G20 presidency.

The regrettable setbacks in the fight against poverty and hunger in the past years is a shared concern.

In two weeks I will present the Alliance against Hunger and Poverty to the Group, and then later opening it to all countries.

I hope to count on the support of each of you as members of the Alliance.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mercosur is resilient, having survived hard years of disintegration.

But thinking alike has never quite been a criterion for constructive engagement in the bloc's tasks.

Diversity of opinions, without extremism or intolerance, is welcome because it strengthens our democracies and leads us to better choices.

Mercosur is and will continue to be Brazil’s great bet for development and international insertion.

Lastly, I would like to congratulate the Paraguayan presidency for firmly and pragmatically stirring the works of Mercosur throughout this semester and to wish my colleague Lacalle Pou success in his presidency from now on.

Dear President Pepe Mujica used to say that “we must build bonds in our region in order to be heard in the international level together. The challenges we face as human beings require, more than ever, collective efforts and innovative proposals”.

May his words inspire us all to look at Mercosur as a source of solutions for our challenges and development.

We need a world of peace.

This is the reason for our engagement in finding a solution for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that effectively involves the two sides.

Brazil’s support to South Africa in its proceedings in the International Court of Justice aims to end the indiscriminate killing of women and children in Gaza.

I conclude my remarks by noting the victory of progressive forces in the recent elections in the United Kingdom and France. These victories are crucial for the defense of democracy and social justice against the threats of extremism.

Thank you very much.