Mylena Fiori
Reporter – Agencia Brasil

Brasilia - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced, this Wednesday (4), his fifth trip to Africa scheduled for the beginning of February. According to the Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, Lula will probably visit Algeria, Ethiopia (headquarters of the African Union), South Africa, and Kenya (headquarters of two important UN offices, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)). There may be a fifth country, not yet defined.

In January, President Lula may have a meeting with Bolivia’s elected President, Evo Morales. January’s agenda also includes a bilateral meeting with President Nestor Kirchner, of Argentina. This will be Kirchner’s first official visit to Brazil with the objective of consolidating, according to Amorim, the 20+ agreements signed with Brazil in Puerto Iguazú, last October.

Also in January, a meeting between Lula, Kirchner and the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, is scheduled to happen. According to Amorim, energy will be the main focus of this meeting, especially the 8 thousand km gas pipeline that connects the three countries and supplies Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. During the 29th Mercosur Summit, that occurred in Montevideo, Uruguay, last December, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela created a commission to analyze the feasibility of the project.

Translation: Andréa Alves