Ag\u00eancia Brasil*<\/STRONG><\/P> Bras\u00edlia \u2013 Upon inviting presidents of the South American countries to sign the Constitutional Treaty that creates the Union of South American Nations (Unasul), last Friday (23rd) in the Brazilian capital Bras\u00edlia, president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva stated that the organisation is going to influence international political relations.<\/P> "A united South America is going to change positions in the chessboard of global power, not to the benefit of one or the other, but to the benefit of all."<\/P> According to Lula, Unasul should now forge ahead with innovative projects in areas of priority such as, for instance, financial and energetic integration, improvement of regional infrastructure, and of highway and railway connections. The president also cited cooperation in social and educational areas.<\/P> To the heads of state gathered in the capital of Brazil, Lula stated that South America has become increasingly important, given the need for sharing energy supplies and preserving the environment. Regarding the global food crisis, the Brazilian president claimed that food scarcity threatens social peace.<\/P> Lula defended the democratic process in South America and mentioned the democratic way in which leaders were elected. "The fact that some regard our continent as unstable is a sign of political life, there is no democracy without the people on the streets, without confronting different ideas and proposals."<\/P> The creation of the South American Defence Council was brought up by Lula. According to him, a concept of defence must be devised for the region based in common values and principles, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each nation. Lula invited the countries to hold a meeting in Brazil in the second half of the year to discuss the aims and workings of the council.<\/P> Lula also summoned all Latin American and Caribbean countries to become members of the union. "Thus the Unasul is born, open to the entire region," he asserted.<\/P> The meeting was attended by the presidents of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, of Chile, Michele Bachelet, of Bolivia, Evo Morales, of Brazil, Lula, of Colombia, \u00c1lvaro Uribe, of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, of the Guiana, Bharrat Jagdeo, of Paraguay, Nicanor Duarte Frutos \u2013 and the elected president Fernando Lugo -, of Peru, Alan Garcia, of Suriname, Ronald Venetiaan, of Venezuela, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, and the vice-president of Uruguay, Rodolfo Nin Novoa.<\/P> *Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/STRONG><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a meeting with regional heads of state last Friday (23rd), the Brazilian president stated that South America is going to change positions in the global political chessboard. The presidents signed a treaty establishing the Union of South American Nations (Unasul).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-affairs"},"wps_subtitle":"In a meeting with regional heads of state last Friday (23rd), the Brazilian president stated that South America is going to change positions in the global political chessboard. The presidents signed a treaty establishing the Union of South American Nations (Unasul).","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}