Brazil-Caribbean Summit: Lula highlights South-South cooperation

The future demands unity, Lula insisted

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted the developing South-South alliance during his opening speech at the Brazil-Caribbean Summit at the Itamaraty Palace. He also mentioned that cooperation with Caribbean countries would be one of the pillars of his foreign policy.

 Lula also described the meeting as a historic moment to rethink relations between South America and the Caribbean nations, prioritizing sustainable development, solidarity, and climate justice.

“Brazil is back on the global stage, and it will not be with indifference towards its neighbors,” he further noted before leaders of 15 Caribbean nations, while insisting on his willingness to strengthen technical cooperation, investments in resilient infrastructure, and support for small island states highly vulnerable to climate change. Lula also called for a reform to the international financial system, “so that it stops penalizing those who pollute the least and suffer the most.”

In addition, he proposed the creation of a South-South Climate Fund to deal with extreme phenomena such as hurricanes, droughts, and rising sea levels.

Lula also advocated diversifying trade, facilitating access to markets, and reducing tariff barriers: “Economic integration should not only be for great powers; it must also serve the peoples of the global South,” he stressed.

“Our roots are intertwined by the history of resistance, and the future demands unity. Together we are stronger in the face of the world’s inequalities,” Lula further underscored.

Also Friday, the countries participating in the Summit issued a document addressed to the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to be celebrated later this year in Belem, Agencia Brasil reported. The statement warned of the seriousness of climate change, whose growing impact on people’s lives represents an existential threat to humanity.

“Climate change is of particular concern to the Caribbean, as the region is strongly affected by natural disasters, aggravated by rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion, which makes it urgent to address these specific needs and circumstances,” it mentioned.

The declaration also called on developed countries to fulfill their “repeatedly unfulfilled” commitments to reduce emissions and also their obligations to support developing countries, including climate finance. The declaration points to the need to increase funding to support this type of response, especially in developing countries.

”There is an urgent need to increase the scale and speed of climate finance in line with the needs of developing countries, including through the immediate reform of the international financial architecture. The vulnerabilities and special circumstances of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) must be adequately considered in financial decisions,” the text points out.