BRAZILIAN President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva welcomed his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro back to the country today for the first time since a ban by his far-right predecessor.

The two left-wing leaders were expected to discuss co-operation in trade and energy, with Lula suggesting he might consider floating the idea of a regional currency to challenge the US dollar.

Today’s meeting in Brasilia brought together 11 South American presidents and the leader of the Council of Ministers of Peru.

Ahead of the meeting, Lula took part in a joint press conference with Mr Maduro and said: “The main idea is that we need to form a bloc to work together.”

He said that he wants to see a regional currency “so that we can do business without depending on the dollar, because the dollar belongs to the United States and it can do whatever it wants with it.”

Brazil, like other countries including China, South Africa and India, expressed alarm at the US decision last year to freeze Russian foreign currency reserves following the invasion of Ukraine, arguing Washington’s ability to weaponise its currency’s dominance in this way could be deployed against any state that angers it.

The Brazilian leader condemned US sanctions on Venezuela and said it was inexplicable that the nation would “impose 900 sanctions because they don’t get on.”

And he urged Mr Maduro to build a new “narrative” about the country, saying an unfair and “constructed” one had been established around the state of democracy in Venezuela.

Mr Maduro said that both leaders re-established “an open and permanent dialogue between the two nations and that “union and diversity” should rule over “extremist and intolerant ideologies” which have tried to isolate Venezuela from the rest of the world.

The Venezuelan leader repeated his calls for the US to lift its sanctions, saying he would call upon the other nations in South America to oppose them as a regional bloc.

Analysists have suggested that discussions could take place to revive the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), which was first established 15 years ago.

The union broke down when right-wing leaders were elected into government and withdrew from it, including former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

Mr Bolsonaro also prohibited Mr Maduro and many members of his government from entering the country in 2019 and instead recognised self-proclaimed leader Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president.