“Brazil is back” says Lula in China

First modification: 04/13/2023 – 17:22

At the Shanghai airport, Lula Da Silva and his wife Rosángela are greeted with flowers by two Chinese children and the vice foreign minister, Xiefeng. the presidential couple seeks to refresh the international image of Brazil.

“The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is a thing of the past. We are back on the international scene after an inexplicable absence,” Lula said in his first official act, making a veiled reference to his predecessor’s government. Jair Bolsonaro. On Friday he will meet his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing to try to form a group of mediating countries in the war in Ukraine.

China and Brazil have in common the fact that they have not imposed sanctions on Russia, and they hope to play a mediating role. Last week, Lula Da Silva pointed out that Ukraine “cannot want everything” and suggested that it could cede the territory of the Crimean peninsula, whose annexation in 2014 by Russia is not recognized by Ukraine and by a good part of the community. international.

The spokesman for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, responded that there is no reason to “abandon a single centimeter of Ukrainian territory,” but thanked “the efforts of the Brazilian president to find a way to stop Russian aggression.”

Lula proposes forming a group of countries to work on a negotiated solution to the conflict caused by the Russian invasion. In fact, he promised that upon his return from China, this group would already be created.

Shaking hands with the best partner

Lula’s visit is, above all, a good time to talk about business, since China is Brazil’s number one trading partner, even above the United States. In 2022, the Asian giant imported Brazilian goods for more than 89.7 billion dollars, especially soybeans and minerals, and exported for an amount of 60.7 billion, according to figures from the Brazilian presidency. Lula heads a delegation that includes some 40 political representatives, including nine ministers, state governors and deputies, and a large group of businessmen.

The first day in Shanghai had a particularly economic component with a visit to a Huawei research center.

In a video posted on Twitter by the Brazilian presidency, a group of musicians dressed in traditional costumes are seen greeting Lula, who visited an exhibition on Huawei’s presence in Brazil together with the firm’s president.

Huawei won a tender to supply the equipment to implement 5G technology in Brazil in 2021, the same year the United States placed the company on the list of Chinese companies that posed an “unacceptable risk” to its national security.

Following this visit, the Brazilian president was scheduled to meet with the head of China’s largest electric car producer, the BYD conglomerate, which makes buses and electric cars in Brazil and plans to open a car plant in Bahia after Ford Motors closed the yours in that industrial zone.