Lula wants to work with China to “balance geopolitics in the world”

Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Friday that he wants to work with Beijing to “balance geopolitics in the world” and “expand trade,” in a meeting with the president of the National People’s Congress of China, Zhao Leji.

“We want to raise the level of strategic partnership between our countries, expand trade flows and balance geopolitics in the world together with China”said Brazil’s head of state, ending a two-day visit to China today.

Recalling that Brazil was the first country to recognize China as a market economy, Lula said the Brasilia-Beijing partnership “has the potential to consolidate a new relationship between developing countries on a global level”.

The meeting took place in the Great Hall of the People, adjacent to Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. The National People’s Congress is China’s highest legislative body.

During Lula da Silva’s first two terms, between 2003 and 2011, the commercial and political relationship between Brazil and China intensified, notably characterized by the formation of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, which also includes Russia, India and Africa . .

The group first met in 2009 – at the time without South Africa – after the global financial crisis, and quickly established an agenda focused on reforming the international order, focusing on a greater role for emerging countries in organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As a whole, the BRICS represent about 40% of the world’s population and 24% of the gross world product.

According to Beijing and Moscow, the rise of the BRICS illustrates the emergence of “a multipolar world”, a phrase that focuses the two countries’ stubborn opposition to Western “hegemonism” and in particular that of the United States.

China has been Brazil’s most important trading partner since 2009, with bilateral trade rising from USD 9 billion (EUR 8.3 billion) in 2004 to USD 150 billion (EUR 139 billion) in 2022. Brazil in particular plays an important role in the food security, accounting for more than 20% of the Asian country’s agricultural imports.