The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will hold bilateral meetings this Monday with the King of Spain, Felipe VI; six Latin American leaders and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, as well as African leaders, after taking office on Sunday.

The 77-year-old progressive leader will begin his agenda with Felipe VI, who headed the Spanish delegation for Lula’s inauguration, also made up of Vice President Yolanda Díaz and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.

Later, he will receive separately the presidents Luis Arce, from Bolivia; Alberto Fernández, from Argentina; Guillermo Lasso, from Ecuador; and Gabriel Boric, from Chile.

Around noon, he will speak with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who the day before told journalists that they would discuss the “new role of Brazil in the world” and “multilateralism”, including the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, still pending ratification.

In the afternoon he will have separate meetings with the Colombian ruler, Gustavo Petro; and with the Honduran president, Xiomara Castro.

Later, he will meet with the Chinese vice president, Wang Qishan; the presidents João Lourenço, from Angola; and José Ramos-Horta, from the Democratic Republic of East Timor; as well as the Prime Minister of Mali, Choguel Kokalla Maiga.

He will end his round of bilateral meetings with the Vice President of Cuba, Salvador Valdés; the president of the Council of Ministers of Peru, Luis Alberto Otárola; and with the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez.

All the meetings will be held at the Itamaraty Palace -headquarters of the Foreign Ministry-, in Brasilia, where Lula’s inauguration ceremony was held on Sunday before authorities from fifty countries and in the midst of a great popular party attended by about 300,000 people.

Lula, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), thus assumed his third term as Brazilian head of state, after having ruled for two consecutive terms between 2003 and 2010.

He succeeded Jair Bolsonaro, leader of the Brazilian extreme right and who decided not to participate in the inauguration ceremonies by traveling to the United States two days before and without an official return plan.

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