TANZANIA – US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to Brazil next week to follow up on recent high-level meetings between the two countries’ presidents and top diplomats.
The US Mission to the United Nations said Wednesday night that it will visit the capital, Brasilia, and then travel to Salvador, one of the oldest cities in the Americas and a center of Afro-Brazilian culture, from May 2-4.
Thomas-Greenfield’s visit follows a White House meeting in February, where President Joe Biden and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stressed the importance of defending democracy and preserving the Amazon rainforest, and talks to the on the sidelines of the Group of 20 ministerial meeting in New Delhi in early March between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.
Lula has also approached China and Russia traveled to Beijing earlier this month to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Brasilia last week.
The Brazilian president sparked criticism from the US and the European Union for recently suggesting that kyiv and the West share some responsibility for the conflict in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022.
The US mission said Thomas-Greenfield, a member of Biden’s cabinet, will focus on promoting democracy and multilateral cooperation on the trip, as well as combating climate change, safeguarding food security, continuing cooperation on regional migration “and ensure equity for the marginalized.” racial, ethnic and indigenous communities”.
Brazil, the largest country in Latin America and one of the world’s leading exporters, is currently serving a two-year term on the UN Security Council. The mission said that in Brasilia, the ambassador will meet with government officials “to discuss our partnership in the region and at the United Nations.”
He will also meet Brazilians caring for the more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the country and speak at the University of Brasilia, the mission said.
In Salvador, the mission said, Thomas-Greenfield will underscore the United States’ commitment to reinvigorate the 2008 Joint US-Brazil Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality and will engage with civil society and Afro-Brazilian youth.
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