Brazil's Lula, Bush Meet to Forge Cooperation

Wed June 18, 2003 01:40 PM ET By Axel Bugge

BRASILIA, Brazil (<href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meets President Bush this week in an encounter that may take relations between the Hemisphere's two most populous nations to a new level of cooperation.

Brazil's first working class president and Bush, a conservative, may be unlikely bedfellows. But as Lula forged ahead to establish a regional leadership role for the Latin American giant since coming to power in January he has become an important partner for Washington.

That role, coupled with Lula's market-friendly policies of tight spending and keeping inflation low, has pleasantly surprised Washington, which worried that Brazil's first elected center-left government would mismanage the economy.

As the two leaders meet at the White House on Friday, Lula can present a country that has investor confidence and strong prospects in a region where many are struggling. They are expected to discuss trade, regional hotspots and Lula's ambitions to help the poor.

Analysts say nothing concrete may come out of the meeting, even on Americas-wide trade where Brazil and the United States disagree on how to proceed, but it signals the start of much closer engagement with Brazil's single largest export market.

Lula is bringing with him 10 ministers, likely making this the first such major summit between Brazil and the United States since World War II when President Getulio Vargas was persuaded by Franklin D. Roosevelt to join the allies in the war.

Anthony Harrington, the former U.S. ambassador to Brazil, said the meeting is a "milestone" which is "taking things to a new level of engagement."

"There is a recognition of mutual interest on the part of the U.S. in Brazil's success," said Harrington. "Brazil can be a very large anchor of stability and in fact seems to be."

With a population of 175 million and an economy that represents just under 50 percent of all South America, Brazil under Lula has begun to forge regional integration.

Lula sought to help stabilize the volatile political situation in Venezuela and offered to help President Alvaro Uribe to fight drug trafficking and violence in Colombia.

Those efforts have helped change suspicions about the former firebrand union leader in Washington, even to the extent that the United States has said it will forgive Brazil for its staunch opposition to the Iraq war.

"There is a recognition by the U.S. of the role Brazil plays in the region as an example of democracy and moderation," said an official at Brazil's foreign ministry. The visit should end "any mutual ideological distrust there may be."

Indeed, many say Lula and Bush got on well when they met in Washington in December, before Lula was sworn in.

"Even though their backgrounds could hardly be more different, they are both rather plain-spoken, direct individuals," said Harrington.