By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit the Amazon rainforest and meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before they attend the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.
Biden would stop in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, or in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, on Nov. 16 or 17, after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru, which Lula will also attend, the sources said.
Their meeting in the Amazon would replace an official visit to Brasilia that Biden had promised Lula when the Brazilian leader visited the White House in 2023.
The day after the Group of 20 summit in Rio, Lula will receive Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit in Brasilia.
The U.S. government has started preparing for a Biden visit to the Amazon, although the stopover has not been confirmed, and officials have visited the two Brazilian cities to study conditions.
The White House declined to comment.
The annual summit of leaders of the world’s largest economies is scheduled to be held on Nov. 18-19 in Rio.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)
