Brazil’s president-elect meets with US national security adviser

By Bala Chambers

BUENOS AIRES (AA) - Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met Monday with US White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Lula wrote on Twitter that he held a meeting with Sullivan in Brazil and confirmed that he has received an invitation to meet with US President Joe Biden.

"I am excited to talk with President Biden and to deepen the relationship between our countries," Lula said, sharing flag emojis of both countries.

Lula and Sullivan had "a very broad conversation" touching on regional and global issues, according to Celso Amorim, Lula’s top foreign policy adviser and a former minister of foreign affairs.

Amorim told the press that the two men discussed climate change, the Russia-Ukraine war, UN Security Council reform, the situation in Venezuela and Haiti, the political movements led by former US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, strengthening regional democracy and development, and technological cooperation.

Amorim said that regarding climate change, the meeting touched on the importance of tackling it but did not go into specifics.

He said both officials underscored the need to find a solution to the ongoing socio-economic and political crisis in Venezuela.

Lula and Sullivan met alongside a number of officials at a hotel in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia.

The meeting lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes, according to news portal Poder360.

Lula is expected to meet with Biden in January after assuming the presidency, according to Amorim.