Sharjah24 - AFP: Joe Biden is preparing for an awkward first meeting with Brazil's far-right leader, who has raised doubts not only about his own country's voting but about the legitimacy of the US president's election.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who was one of the most outspoken international allies of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, is taking part in the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, where Biden is seeking to champion democracy.
The presidents of the Western Hemisphere's two most populous nations are expected to meet Thursday on the sidelines of the summit.
Bolsonaro will then head to Florida to open a consulate in Orlando and will seek to meet figures from Trump's Republican Party, Brazilian officials said.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, said that Biden would not shy away from bringing up Brazil's October elections in which Bolsonaro is expected to face former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist icon who was jailed on controversial corruption charges.
"There are no topics off-limits in any bilateral the president does, including with President Bolsonaro," Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One.
"I do anticipate that the president will discuss open, free, fair, transparent democratic elections," he said.
He said that Biden would also speak about climate change with Bolsonaro, a stalwart defender of agribusiness who has horrified environmental activists with his record on preserving the Amazonian rainforest.
Bolsonaro is traveling as he faces accusations of not doing enough to find a British journalist and Brazilian indigenous expert who went missing in the Amazon.
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