Lula da Silva said no one will forbid Brazil from improving relations with China during an official meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, where economic agreements between the South American and Asian giants and a joint declaration in favor of peace in Ukraine were signed.
“Yesterday we visited Huawei to tell the world that we have no prejudices in our relations with the Chinese, no one will forbid Brazil to improve its relationship with China,” the Brazilian president said at the open meeting between the leaders, in what was taken as a message to the United States, which Lula visited about two months ago.
“The value of our exports to China is greater than the sum of our exports to the United States and the European Union. China is a great engine of Brazilian agribusiness,” Brazil’s president underlined a little later.
In a recent interview with DN, international relations specialist Vinícius Vieira recalled that the Lula government is trying to act as a lynchpin between the two world powers. “Brazil, as it does not reach the status of a great power, like the US or China, is trying to play as a central state, within the scope of the fight against the world’s far right, courted by the US that Bolsonaro is the main supporter of Donald Trump and that the battle against Trumpism has not yet been won in the US, and by China, where Xi is demanding investment in industries”.
In his statement, Xi said that “the Communist Party is leading the nation in a concerted effort to transform China into a great modern socialist country and to promote national rejuvenation on all fronts through a path to modernization.”
“On this journey,” he continued, “China will pursue high-quality development, accelerate the creation of a new development paradigm and promote high-quality openness, which will unlock new opportunities for Brazil and other countries around the world.”
At the time of the meeting, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying celebrated the meeting on social media with a photo of the two leaders and the caption “a handshake between the two largest developing countries in the eastern and western hemispheres.” “.
The two countries also signed a joint declaration for peace in Ukraine. In the text, Brazil publicly assumes that it “appreciates” Beijing’s peace plan, which has been proposed to meet Russian and Ukrainian demands, and China “acknowledges” Brasília’s efforts to find ways to bring about peace in promote Ukraine. One of the main points of the statement is a call on other countries to join in the defense of a peaceful way out of the conflict.
While Lula and Xi met, Janja da Silva and Peng Liyuan, the first ladies, had a separate meeting before going to the banquet given to the visitors by the hosts.
According to forecasts by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, the pacts signed on the sidelines of the meeting between the countries total about 50 billion reais, equivalent to about nine billion euros in investments. The list highlights memoranda of understanding for infrastructure and public-private partnerships, and a protocol for the production and operation of CBERS-6 satellites.
During a meeting with the President of the People’s Assembly of China, Zhao Leji, at the Grand Palace of the People ahead of the meeting with Xi, the Brazilian president recalled that “it is with China that Brazil is the main stream of foreign trade , it is with China that we have our largest trade balance and it is with China that we have tried to balance geopolitics in the world, discussing the most important issues.”
“My visit to China is a recognition of this partnership and so that we can further expand our partnership, my journey at the moment is a journey in search of increasing what good we have,” he said at the time.
Twenty years ago, China was the fourth largest buyer of Brazilian products – after the United States, the Netherlands and Germany – but today it comfortably tops the ranking: in 2022 it bought nearly $90 billion from Brazil, more than the sum of the five countries featured in the series.
In the list of countries that sell the most to Brazil, China moved from seventh place in 2002 to first place today. However, the trade balance is positive for the South American country at almost USD 30 billion.
Brazil mainly exports raw materials to China and imports goods and electronic components from the Asian giant that supplies the Brazilian industry.
Lula also spoke to the press about intensifying relations between Brazil and China in areas such as science and technology, exchange of university students, cultural relations and especially strategies to combat climate change and clean energy and the production of electric cars and buses.
“I think my government’s understanding of China is that we have to work hard to establish a relationship between Brazil and China that is not just a relationship of purely commercial interest,” Lula said.
“We count on China in our fight to preserve planet Earth, to defend a healthier climate policy where people can breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water. For this, an energy transition to produce cleaner energy, especially wind, solar energy. , biomass”.
“Brazil has 80% of its energy completely clean and my government is committed to achieving zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 to make our contribution to preserving the planet,” he said.
Still on Thursday during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as president of the BRICS bank, the bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the Brazilian president defended the joint action of emerging countries to reduce inequalities and provide an alternative to the dollar for trade between block members.
“Who decided that the dollar was the currency after gold disappeared, gold as parity?” Lula wondered. flowers placed on the monument in Tiananmen Square.
Source: DN
