Cuban President Meets With Brazilian President’s Top Advisor

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel received on Friday Celso Amorím, chief advisor to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is making a working visit to the island to strengthen bilateral relations.

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The Cuban leader said on the social network X, formerly Twitter, that the meeting ratified the willingness of both countries to move forward in prioritized sectors, and with opportunities for bilateral development.

"I had a pleasant meeting with Celso Amorim, head of the Special Advisor to the President of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. We ratified our willingness to move forward in priority sectors and with opportunities for the development of bilateral ties for the benefit of both peoples," said Díaz-Canel. 

During the meeting at the Palace of the Revolution, the Cuban leader expressed his gratitude for Brazil's solidarity with the Cuban people and its rejection of the economic blockade imposed by the U.S. on the island for more than six decades.

The tweet reads, "The fact that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent me a letter to President Miguel Díaz-Canel symbolizes the desire to bring Brazil closer to Cuba," Celso Amorím told the press after his meeting with the Cuban president."

Speaking to the press at the end of the meeting, Lula's foreign policy advisor said that his visit to Cuba was an express determination of the Brazilian president and added that his trip to the island "symbolizes the desire to bring Brazil closer to Cuba."

In that sense, Amorim advanced that several missions are coming to Cuba, among them from Embrapa, Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise, as well as specialists from the Ministry of Health. 

"We want to make the relationship between Brazil and Cuba an exemplary relationship, a relationship of great friendship, which also contributes to peace in our region, because peace is the great objective of diplomacy; economic growth as well, but peace is fundamental," said Lula's foreign policy advisor.

Amorim also met with the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, on August 16. On the occasion, they reaffirmed the will to strengthen bilateral relations and take advantage of the existing potentialities.

He was Brazil's Minister of Foreign Affairs on two occasions (1993-1994 and 2003-2010), Minister of Defense from 2011 to 2014, and is currently chief advisor to President Lula.