Lula arrives in Shanghai.
Lula, who once again assumed the presidency of Brazil after 12 years, started his visit to China from the 12th to the 15th, focusing on bilateral cooperation in the economic and trade field, as well as the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war and other issues.
Lula first arrived in Shanghai to attend the inauguration of former president Dilma Rousseff as head of the BRICS New Development Bank. He then traveled to Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“We will strengthen relations with China,” Lula said on Monday. “I will invite Xi Jinping to come to Brazil for bilateral talks, get to know Brazil and show him projects of interest for Chinese investment.”
China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and the key to Lula’s re-establishment of influence in global geopolitics. Beijing also sees Brazil as key to its strategic and economic plans.
This is Lula’s fifth visit to China, which was originally scheduled for March but was postponed due to health problems.
restart bilateral trade
The Brazilian government said the main goal of Lula’s visit to China was to restart trade relations with China.
China surpassed the United States as Brazil’s largest trading partner in 2009 and is a major market for Brazilian commodities such as soybeans, iron ore and oil. Brazil is also the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America, mainly in fields such as high-voltage transmission lines and oil production.
According to Brazilian official data, in 2022, China imported more than US$89.7 billion in Brazilian goods, especially soybeans and ores; and exported nearly US$60.7 billion to Brazil.
image source,Getty Images
During Lula’s first two terms as president, Brazil’s total trade with China grew rapidly. In 2010, the last year of his second term, Brazil’s exports to China reached US$30.7 billion, an increase of 582% compared to 2003 when he took office; imports were US$25.6 billion, an increase of 11 times compared to 2003. .
The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency announced at the end of last month that Brazil-China business transactions will be conducted directly in reals and renminbi instead of US dollars.
Lula’s visit to China is an effort by the new Brazilian government to rebuild international relations. Lula also recently visited Argentina, Uruguay and the United States and met with European leaders attending the presidential inauguration. This visit to China is Lula’s first visit to a country outside the Western Hemisphere during his third term.
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of trade relations between Brazil and China.
20 agreements to build satellites and more
Lula is expected to sign about 20 bilateral agreements with China during his visit.
One of these is the construction of CBERS-6, the sixth in a series of satellites jointly built by Brazil and China. The new model is technically improved and can effectively monitor biomes such as the Amazon rainforest even on cloudy days.
A Brazilian aircraft maker may sign a deal to sell 20 commercial jets to Chinese airlines, according to Archyde.com.
There are 240 people in the delegation that visited China with Lula, including about 40 high-level people, including several ministers, who are responsible for finance, environment and climate change, agriculture and animal husbandry, technological innovation, foreign affairs, mining and energy, and social development. , and communication.
Mediation in the Ukraine crisis
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Lula, 77, also wants to restore Brazil’s role in international geopolitics. He is expected to advise Xi on how to mediate negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
They “will discuss the war in Ukraine,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told reporters, adding that Lula wanted to push for mediation talks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Vieira said that after returning from Lula’s visit to China, he will “create” a group of mediating countries.
Lula, who served as Brazil’s president for eight years, was keen to position the South American giant as an intermediary, but his diplomacy took a hit last year. He has come under fire for claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin are “equally responsible” for the war. He has also refused to join the ranks of Western countries in sending weapons to Ukraine to help fend off the Russian threat.
Last week, Lula said that “Putin cannot keep Ukrainian territory”, but he also insisted that Zelensky “cannot want everything”.
The Brazilian government appears to endorse China’s 12-point peace initiative in late February. “These are basic conditions for peace,” Vieira said, calling Beijing’s proposal “very positive.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement last Friday, in which they pledged “both sides support all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine on the basis of international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”. France is also one of the few countries that wants China to mediate the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
But Moscow rejected any “political solution” to the conflict, with state media mocking Macron after his visit to China for failing to achieve his goal of mediation.
Brazilian analyst Lourival Sant’Anna recently wrote, “From a geopolitical point of view, President Lula is visiting China at a delicate moment, because Brazil’s position on the Ukraine war is vague.”
The leftist Lula government has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia, and Brazil’s leaders have struggled to avoid being seen as taking sides.
Join the Belt and Road Initiative?
Brazil has not joined the “Belt and Road” initiative proposed by China.
This Monday, a reporter asked at the press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether China and Pakistan would sign the China-Pakistan “Belt and Road” cooperation agreement. Spokesman Wang Wenbin did not make a clear statement.
He said that the “One Belt, One Road” initiative is a completely open and transparent cooperation initiative. We are willing to work with the international community to jointly promote the cooperation in building the “Belt and Road” and make efforts to promote the common development of all countries. ”
In 2022, Argentina will sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. If Brazil joins this time, it means that the “Belt and Road” initiative will cover most of South America.
Some analysts pointed out that the reason why Brazil has not signed China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative is that most governments in South America have already joined China’s global infrastructure development plan. It is in China’s interest more than Brazil’s to have this large developing country join the initiative.
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