EU and Latin American leaders hold a summit hoping to rekindle relationship with long-lost friends

RAF CASERT

Leaders from the European Union and Latin America are gathering for a major summit of long-lost relatives starting on Monday. Whether it will be a joyful meeting of long-lost friends remains to be seen.

Their last such encounter was eight years ago. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic and Brazil’s three-year departure from the 33-nation Community of Latin American and Caribbean States — or CELAC — had made the Atlantic Ocean separating the two sides seem wider.

And division ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine to trade, deforestation and slavery reparations has given extra spice to a two-day summit that will now already be considered a success if all agree to meet more frequently from now on.

The 27-nation EU certainly takes it share of the blame for the estrangement.

“For too many years, Europe has been turning its back on what is, without a doubt, by far the