The Spain-Brazil Summit will conclude with agreements on critical minerals, innovation, culture, gender, and racial equality

Eduardo González The first Spain-Brazil Summit, to be held this Friday, April 17, at the Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona, will conclude with the signing of a dozen agreements on critical minerals, cooperation in innovation, science and culture, racial equality, gender, and the fight against violence against women, among others. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will preside over the first High-Level Meeting (HLM) between Spain and a Latin American country, a bilateral format that already exists with several countries in our region and in which both the heads of government (or state, in some cases) and the various ministries participate. Pending Brazil finalizing its delegation, sources from Moncloa have specified that, on behalf of Spain, the following will participate: the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen; Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares (who will have to try to combine it with his participation in the conference of “non-belligerent countries” on the Strait of Hormuz, which will be held on the same day in Paris at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer); Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun; Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration Óscar López; Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities Diana Morant; Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz; Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas; Minister of Equality Ana Redondo; and Minister of Youth and Childhood Sira Rego. The meeting will follow the classic format of high-level summits, with a bilateral meeting between Presidents Sánchez and Lula, a series of sectoral bilateral meetings between their respective ministers, the signing of agreements, a press conference, and lunch. The goal of both countries is for these summits to become institutionalized from now on, likely every two years. According to the aforementioned sources, more agreements will be signed at the summit. Ten agreements negotiated between the two countries will be grouped into three main themes: first, a series of economic and trade agreements in areas of particular interest, such as a memorandum of understanding on cooperation regarding critical minerals and others on entrepreneurship and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. Second, there will be a section on cooperation in innovation, science, and culture, and third, a section of a social nature, with special attention to gender issues, the fight against violence against women, racial equality, and other social matters. Finally, a joint declaration will be adopted by the two countries at the end of the summit. Sánchez and Lula Lula and Sánchez will also dedicate their bilateral meeting to three thematic areas. The first section corresponds to the bilateral sphere, which will be closely linked to the agreements and the joint declaration. The second section will be dedicated to the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, starting with Brazil's importance in the region and the relevance of Latin America to Spain's foreign policy. In this area, the two leaders will discuss the upcoming Summit. The Ibero-American Summit, to be held in Madrid at the end of the year, where Spain hopes Brazil will exercise strong leadership, and the EU-Mercosur agreement, which will soon enter into force and which Brazil has already ratified, will be among the topics discussed. They will also talk about the situation in some countries of the region. In this regard, and lacking further details, the aforementioned sources consider it very likely that they will address the situation in Venezuela, which has undergone a dramatic shift in the last four months, following the US attack, the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, and the opening of an uncertain transition process orchestrated from Washington and led in the country by the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez. The third area of conversation between Sánchez and Lula will be the global situation. While further details are still pending, the aforementioned sources have noted that both leaders share very similar views on many priorities, which has been demonstrated over the last two years in various joint initiatives, such as the creation of a panel on inequality within the framework of the United Nations and the advocacy for a tax on the super-rich or proposals for reforming the multilateral system.

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