WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will become the first sitting president to visit the Amazon rainforest later this month when he travels to Brazil as part of a six-day trip to Latin America for a pair of international summits, the White House said Thursday.
Biden will start his trip with a Nov. 14-16 visit to Lima, Peru, where he will meet with President Dina Boluarte and attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. From there, he will travel to Manaus and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil from Nov. 17-19.
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In Manaus, Biden will visit the rainforest and see local, indigenous and other leaders who are working to preserve the region, the first such visit by a U.S. president. In Rio de Janeiro, Biden will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to promote workers' rights and clean economic growth, the White House said. He will also attend the Group of 20 summit of world leaders to discuss global challenges like hunger, poverty and climate change.
Biden spoke earlier Thursday with Lula to discuss the upcoming G20 summit. It may have also been an opportunity for Biden to commiserate with a sympathetic world leader.
The left-leaning Lula made clear his preference for Democrat Kamala Harris ahead of the U.S. election. Lula in 2022 defeated the far right former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was known as “Trump of the Tropics.”
Biden is in the final months of his presidency and will be handing off the Oval Office to Republican Donald Trump. The two summits will offer Biden one of his last chances as president to meet with heads of state he’s worked with over the years.
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