Brasília: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declined President Trump’s offer of a telephone conversation with him to discuss tariffs, NDTV reported.
Silva in a video widely shared on social media said that he would rather talk to Prime Minister Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Brazilian leader’s ungracious rejection of Trump’s offer for talks underlines the deepening rift between two countries after Trump’s decision to slap a 50 per cent tariff on Brazil.
‘I am not going to call Trump to negotiate anything, because he doesn’t want to talk,’ Silva told an event.
‘But rest assured, Marina, I will call Trump to invite him to the COP, because I want to know what he thinks about the climate issue. I will have the courtesy to call, I will call him, I will call Xi Jinping, I will call Prime Minister Modi, I will call,’ he added.
In more conciliatory tone, Trump told reports at White House on August 1 that President Silva can ‘talk to me anytime he wants,’ to discuss tariffs and other issues.
President Silva, however, was not happy with US tariffs calling the day it was imposed as ‘the most regrettable’ time in the bilateral history between the two countries.
Explaining plans to overcome the US pressure, he said that his government was already in talks with other nations including BRICS partners to strengthen foreign trade.
‘In 2025, we will resort to all possible measures, starting with the WTO, to defend our interests...In fact, the government was already taking action to strengthen foreign trade and generate new opportunities for domestic companies before the change of administration in the United States,’ Lula told an event in Brasilia.