The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will travel to Brazil next week. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield will visit Brasília and Salvador between May 2 and 4, according to a media release from the U.S. mission to the UN.
“In Brasília, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will meet with Brazilian government officials to discuss our partnership in the region and at the United Nations, including on climate and food security. She will meet UN and NGO representatives supporting the more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers hosted by Brazil,” reads the statement.
Food security, notably access to fertilizers, was one of the arguments used by the former administration of Jair Bolsonaro for Brazil not to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. In June 2022, after Mr. Bolsonaro and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone, the Kremlin said Mr. Putin “stressed that Russia is committed to fulfilling its obligations to ensure the uninterrupted supply of Russian fertilizers to Brazilian farmers.”
Brazil and the U.S. do not see eye to eye on the Ukraine war. The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has maintained a position of declared neutrality but often echoes Russian talking points.
Conversely, in March 2022, the week after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield compared Mr. Putin to Adolf Hitler.
“A few of the eldest Ukrainians and Russians might recall a moment like this. A moment when one aggressive European nation invaded another, without provocation, to claim the territory of its neighbor. A moment when a European dictator declared he would return his empire to its former glory,” she told the UN General Assembly.
Venezuelan migration is also a sensitive issue for the U.S. government, as thousands of Venezuelans who fled Nicolás Maduro’s regime to Brazil later tried to migrate to the U.S. In a 2018 speech in Brasília, then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced additional support for Venezuelan migrants in Latin American countries, including Brazil.
Since Lula’s January 1 inauguration, several high-level U.S. officials have visited Brazil, including U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and Jose W. Fernandez, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment.
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