Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told President Barack Obama yesterday he had a "unique" chance to revive US ties with Latin America, in the new US leader's debut foray into regional diplomacy.
Obama welcomed Lula as the first Latin American leader to visit him in the White House for talks ranging from next months G20 crisis summit in London, climate change and alternative energy, and global diplomatic issues.
Lula said Obama was in a "unique and exceptional position to improve relationships with Latin America," as they sat side-by-side in the Oval Office, adding that Obama's leadership was vital to helping beat the economic meltdown.
He also suggested to Obama that though it would be difficult, the two countries should work together to prod the world towards a conclusion of the exhaustive Doha round of global trade talks.
The US leader said he was looking forward to making his own visit to Brazil soon, and praised his guest's nation as a "progressive" and "forward looking" leader in the world.
"We have a very strong friendship between the two countries, but we can always make it stronger," Obama said.
US officials and Brazilian officials had pointed to the fact that Lula was the first Latin American leader to meet the new president as proof of Brazil's rising economic and diplomatic prowess.
Brazil is targeting a permanent seat on an expanded UN Security Council and promoting itself as a voice in helping solve issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The two leaders did not mention the case of a custody dispute over an eight-year-old American boy Sean Goldman.
US lawmakers this week overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Brazil to return the boy to his US father and said they wanted Obama to raise the matter with Lula when they see each other.
Sean is currently living with his stepfather in Brazil after his Brazilian mother - who took him to the South American nation after a split with her US husband David Goldman four years ago - died in childbirth last August. A Brazilian court has granted custody of Sean to his Brazilian stepfather, ignoring a previous court decision in the US state of New Jersey giving custody to David Goldman.
While emotions were running high over that case, US and Brazilian officials were more focused on the financial and economic crisis reshaping the world, and how the talks could go to addressing it.
The top US official for Latin America said this week that the visit was a sign of increasingly warm ties between Brazil and the US on multiple levels.
"This, from our point of view, is a great opportunity for the United States to build on an important relationship that we have with Brazil," Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon said. In promoting biofuels, the two countries have "built a relationship around alternative energy sources dedicated to using energy as an important component of social and economic development," Shannon said. Their work to fight climate change and protect the environment will "open a space for the United States and Brazil to co-operate more broadly, not only throughout Latin America, especially Central America and the Caribbean, but also in Africa and other parts of the developed world."