Biden and Lula Meet at White Home, Vowing to Guard Democracy

WASHINGTON — When he hosts world leaders, President Biden sometimes exchanges ideas on commerce coverage or nationwide safety and perhaps swaps previous election tales. However on Friday, for the primary time, he welcomed a frontrunner with whom he may commerce notes about being on the receiving finish of a violent riot.

Mr. Biden’s assembly on the White Home with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil got here barely a month after a mob supporting Mr. Lula’s defeated predecessor ransacked the nation’s Congress, Supreme Court docket and presidential workplaces in an assault eerily just like the storming of the U.S. Capitol two years earlier.

“Each our nations’ robust democracies have been examined of late, very a lot examined, and our establishments are put in jeopardy,” Mr. Biden mentioned as he sat with Mr. Lula within the Oval Workplace. “However in each america and Brazil, democracy prevailed.” He added: “Brazil, america, stand collectively, we reject political violence and we put nice worth in our democratic establishments.”

The rampage in Brazil on Jan. 8 felt like a South American repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault in Washington when tons of of supporters of President Donald J. Trump broke into the Capitol in search of to cease the counting of electoral votes confirming Mr. Biden’s victory. The Brazilian mob, supporting former President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right chief who befriended Mr. Trump and was referred to as the Trump of the Tropics, marauded by authorities buildings, hoping to prod the army to topple the leftist Mr. Lula.

Sitting within the Oval Workplace on Friday, Mr. Lula thanked Mr. Biden “on your solidarity” in the course of the disaster final month and described his predecessor in scathing phrases.

“His world began and ended with faux information,” Mr. Lula mentioned by a translator. “Within the morning, within the afternoon and at evening.”

Mr. Biden smiled. “Sounds acquainted,” he replied.

The assembly between the 2 leaders, simply 40 days into Mr. Lula’s presidency, was framed as a renewal of the connection between the 2 largest nations within the Western Hemisphere and illustrated the nice and cozy embrace that Brazil’s new chief is receiving from leaders the world over after 4 years of generally erratic international coverage underneath Mr. Bolsonaro.

“In a way, this go to resumes bilateral relations,” Michel Arslanian Neto, the ambassador who oversees the Americas area in Brazil’s international ministry, advised reporters Tuesday. “A relationship that has been just a little bit on the again burner since Biden’s victory.”

Just some years aside in age, Mr. Biden and Mr. Lula are each seasoned politicians with related straight-talking, backslapping political kinds. Forward of the assembly, each side burdened their shared need and rising cooperation to fight local weather change. Brazil’s new atmosphere minister, Marina Silva, was additionally in Washington on Friday. John Kerry, the American local weather envoy, has already met with Lula administration officers twice and plans to go to Brazil this yr.

Past their shared experiences and views concerning the threats to democracy, probably the most urgent merchandise on the agenda for his or her talks was defending the Amazon rainforest. When Mr. Lula repeated his nation’s dedication to utterly halt deforestation by 2030, Mr. Biden crossed his fingers.

“I can reassure you, Mr. President, that the U.S. and the remainder of the world can rely on Brazil within the struggle for democracy and the struggle for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest,” Mr. Lula mentioned.

After 4 years of accelerating deforestation underneath Mr. Bolsonaro, Mr. Lula has made defending the Amazon a central precedence, together with a current push to eject unlawful miners from one among Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories. Mr. Lula advised reporters after the assembly with Mr. Biden that he thought america would contribute to the Amazon Fund established to protect the rainforest, though he mentioned it didn’t come up in the course of the talks.

There have been areas of disagreement, most notably the Russian conflict on Ukraine. Whereas Mr. Lula has condemned Russia’s invasion, he has additionally urged previously that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and NATO share some blame, and he has hesitated to promote weapons to Ukraine in an effort to keep up neutrality. Brazil’s place on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is difficult by its reliance on Russia for a few quarter of its fertilizer imports, that are essential to its huge agriculture business.

Mr. Lula needs to attempt to assist mediate peace within the battle, whereas Mr. Biden has been extra skeptical of talks within the quick time period since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has proven no real interest in ending hostilities. Furthermore, Mr. Biden has repeatedly insisted that he wouldn’t assist a settlement until it had been acceptable to Ukraine.

Talking with reporters exterior the White Home after his assembly with Mr. Biden, Mr. Lula mentioned they mentioned “the necessity to create a gaggle of nations that aren’t concerned straight or not directly within the conflict with Russia in an effort to discover a solution to make peace.”

“I’m satisfied we’ve to discover a solution to finish this conflict,” he mentioned. “It’s worthwhile to have companions in a position to construct a gaggle of negotiators with credibility on each side who can finish the conflict.”

In an interview with CNN earlier within the day, Mr. Lula mentioned that he wouldn’t promote weapons or ammunition to Ukraine to keep away from getting concerned. “I don’t need to be part of the conflict,” he mentioned. “I need to finish the conflict.” He added that in his assembly with Mr. Biden, “I don’t know what he’s going to say to me, however what I’m going to say to him: It’s essential to construct a set of nations to barter peace.”

John Kirby, the White Home nationwide safety spokesman, mentioned in a separate interview with CNN that the U.S. authorities believes Mr. Lula’s view doesn’t mirror the present state of the conflict. “We don’t see any impetus proper now to get to the negotiating desk,” he mentioned, “in order that’s why we’re targeted on ensuring Ukraine has all the pieces they should be profitable on the battlefield, so if and when President Zelensky says, ‘I’m prepared to take a seat down,’ he can accomplish that with some wind at his again.”

Mr. Kirby mentioned that the White Home would proceed to push for assist for Ukraine, however that it respects sovereign nations like Brazil to make their very own choices. “The entire difficulty at stake in Ukraine, if you get proper all the way down to it, is about sovereignty,” he mentioned. “How hypocritical would it not be for america, in that type of body, to be browbeating or tussling with different nations to offer extra, do extra, say extra?”

One other flash level was the destiny of two Iranian warships within the area. Mr. Lula’s authorities reversed a choice permitting the ships to dock in Rio de Janeiro forward of his journey to Washington, however merely delayed the ships’ go to till later this month or early subsequent month. Republicans argued that Mr. Lula ought to bar them altogether.

“It’s utterly unacceptable for President Lula da Silva to easily postpone, as an alternative of forbidding, the go to of two Iranian warships to Brazil to appease the White Home forward of Lula’s assembly with Biden at this time,” mentioned Consultant Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Home International Affairs Committee.

For Mr. Lula, Mr. Biden was the third American president he has handled now that he has been returned to workplace following a corruption investigation that landed him in jail in 2018. Mr. Lula has lengthy maintained his innocence, saying political enemies framed him to eradicate his leftist Employees’ Celebration from Brazilian politics.

One unknown left unaddressed within the public portion of their assembly was the destiny of his predecessor and defeated rival, Mr. Bolsonaro, who was one of many final world leaders to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory over Mr. Trump. Mr. Bolsonaro stays so near the previous American president that he gave him a framed likeness of Mr. Trump made out of bullet casings that has been proven off to guests at Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. Bolsonaro has been in Florida since Dec. 30 whereas dealing with investigations in Brazil for his actions as president, inquiries that he calls politically motivated. The state of affairs may get tough if Brazilian authorities deliver fees towards him whereas he’s on U.S. territory, though it appears unlikely American officers could be serious about defending him. U.S. officers mentioned they’d deal with any request by acceptable processes.

Michael D. Shear, André Spigariol and Lisa Friedman contributed reporting.