Two months after visiting Joe Biden in Washington, Lula da Silva meets Xi Jinping in Beijing and Shanghai, from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15. war in Ukraine, the moment of the BRICS, a bloc that includes the two countries , Russia, India and South Africa, marking the return of Brazilian diplomacy to dialogue, on apparent par with the two major world powers of the moment, the US and China.
“One of the themes of the visit is development, which involves technology, climate change, energy transition and the fight against hunger, and it will be a moment when Brazil and China also address the world,” said Eduardo Saboia, Secretary of Asia and Pacific or Itamaraty, as Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is called.
The secretary also stated that 20 agreements are ready for signature between the two countries, covering health, agriculture, education, finance, industry, science and technology, including the launch of Cbers-6, the first Sino-Brazilian satellite for guarding the earth. surface.
The meeting’s focus on the economy is underlined by the presence of 240 Brazilian businessmen, 90 of whom are from agriculture, in Lula’s entourage, alongside ministers and parliamentarians. “The trade surplus that Brazil is achieving in exports to China is absolutely crucial to balance Brazil’s current account, which is chronically in deficit,” diplomat Paulo Roberto de Almeida told the newspaper. Brazilian mail.
With the visit to the Asian country, Lula, who delayed his departure for two weeks after being diagnosed with mild pneumonia, effectively completes a tour of the country’s three largest trading partners, China, the US and Argentina in the first three months of government. In addition, he received German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Brasília, went to Uruguay shortly after his trip to Buenos Aires to discuss intentions to conclude trade agreements outside Mercosur, and visited Portugal in Egypt on his return from COP27 before the official inauguration.
In his election victory speech on October 30, Lula underlined that one of his priorities would be “to replace Brazil in the world”, referring to what he perceived as the “isolationism” of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, in the foreign scenario. .
in the newspaper metropolisesHowever, columnist Paulo Cappelli continues with a possible point of tension in the economic area between Brazil and China. “In Beijing, despite initial excitement over the departure of the verbose Bolsonaro and the PT victory, the eastern country fears possible protectionist measures by the Brazilian government regarding Chinese oil.”
However, not only trade relations are discussed during the visit of the Brazilian head of state to China. Lula wants to convince the Chinese president to join the ‘peace club’, as the group of countries that the Brazilian head of state wanted to bring together to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Lula has already discussed the matter with Biden, with Scholz and with France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna. “But that will be the most delicate aspect of the visit to China,” says Paulo Roberto Almeida.
Especially since Brazil and China are part of the BRICS, an economic bloc of emerging countries that also includes India, South Africa and of course Russia. “The BRICS are in an uncomfortable position of positive neutrality towards the Russian president,” the diplomat notes. “But it is not expected that countries belonging to the International Criminal Court, such as Brazil, will be able to receive a criminal, such as Vladimir Putin, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued.”
“That is why the Russian president is not allowed to attend the next BRICS summit, in August, in South Africa. It is an extremely delicate aspect for Brazil, because it is in confrontation with the other Western countries that support Ukraine, and it is terribly exhausting . for Lula,” he adds.
The BRICS will also be the subject of the recent election, without competition, of Brazil’s president from 2011 to 2016, Dilma Rousseff, who will sit in the entourage to head the bloc’s bench. On his way through Shanghai, the headquarters of the BRICS, Lula is expected to strengthen Brazil’s position vis-à-vis the BRICS, reinforcing the commercial and political nature of the visit, which has changed much from the Bolsonaro government to the current, since in the previous government the BRICS bloc was not treated as a priority, this was immediately reconsidered with the nomination of Dilma Rousseff for the presidency of the institution,” said economist Lucas Fernandes, political analysis coordinator at BMJ Consultores Associados.
In contrast, on the eve of Lula’s departure for China, the meeting is being watched with attention in the US: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee invited Biden administration officials for the first time in years to discuss the “future of US-Brazil relations” “.
Quoted by BBC Brazil, a member of Lula’s entourage applauded Beijing. “If the two giants want to fight to know who will be the best partner for Brazil, we can only win [ver entrevista]”.
INTERVIEW WITH VINÍCIUS VIEIRA, Professor of Economics and International Relations
Brazil trying to become pivotal state between US and China
How can one read Lula’s visit to China two and a half months after she left for the US?
Brazil, since it does not reach great power status, like the US, China, Russia, because of the nuclear and military issue, and the European Union, because of the economic issue, since it has no military power of its own, It tries to play as a pivotal state, such as Turkey, India and, to a lesser extent, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria or South Africa, which are essential for powers to build alliances, aiming at productive chains and eventual war.
What does the country have to offer both powers?
Brazil is being courted by the US in the fight against the global far right, as Bolsonaro was Donald Trump’s main supporter and the battle against Trumpism in the US has not yet been won. In China Lula will entrust Xi with investments in industries and if Xi does not offer him anything in the coming years Brazil will be able to open more space for Americans and Europeans everything will depend on diplomacy and Lula has already shown that he is strong in this area as the idea of being a world leader capable of solving problems beyond Brazilian influence does not cross his mind.
Is China diplomatically more important than the US for Brazil?
At first Lula, influenced by the PT, felt that the US would go into an irreversible decline, which did not happen, and that China would become the new power pole, there was even talk of making a similar change. of the early 20th century, when Brazil moved the center of diplomacy from London to Washington. But Brazil no longer has this optimism with China, which sees the country only as a supplier of raw materials.
Does the PT still feel more affinity with China than with the US?
There is a thought in the PT that is still anti-imperial, childish, old fashioned, from the dinosaur left, from, say, not criticizing the Nicaraguan government and admiring the Chinese model. But if the Lula of the past tended towards China, the one of the present tends towards the US. Meanwhile, at the same time, it prioritizes the Mercosur-EU agreement to allow US and Chinese diplomacy to streamline economic mechanisms to help Brazil.
Source: DN
