Lula and Abdo discuss Itaipú, Unasur, and EU deal
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva Thursday told his Paraguayan colleague Mario Abdo Benítez about his intentions to reorganize Unasur and reinforce Mercosur's unity. Lula and Abdo met at the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant in Foz do Iguazú.
Lula insisted one of his government's diplomatic goals was to strengthen the unity of Mercosur and the “reorganization” of the South American Union of Nations (Unasur), arguing that his country, as the largest economy, must share economic growth with its neighbors. The Workers' Party leader also expressed his concern about what he called South America's “peace and tranquility.”
Both Presidents met on the occasion of the appointment of Itaipu's new Brazilian director: Enio Verri, on the 50th anniversary of the treaty that created the second power plant of its kind in the world, after the Chinese Three Gorges.
“We do not want a rich Brazil surrounded by poor countries. Brazil has to combine its growth with that of its neighbors. Brazil, as a big brother, has the responsibility that its neighbors grow to live in a continent of peace and tranquility and never again repeat the ignorant gesture of war, as already happened between Brazilians and Paraguayans,” said Lula about the 1864-1870 conflict.
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