Brazil geopolitics

Lula in China: "We are trying to balance world geopolitics"

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assured this Friday that he wants Brazil and China to associate to "balance global geopolitics" and warned that "no one is going to prohibit" the deepening of relations between the two countries, during the official visit made to his Chinese peer, Xi Jinping, in Beijing, who received him with the largest official State ceremony not recorded since before the pandemic.

 

The summit raised the level of the alliance between China and Brazil after Lula's return to the presidency on January 1, and resulted in the signing of 15 agreements between governments, 20 between companies from both countries, and a push to reduce dependence on the US dollar from bilateral trade and to form a peace club to stop the war in Ukraine, the Télam news agency reported.

 

Trade agreements

 

 

"No one is going to prohibit Brazil from perfecting its relationship with China," Lula said upon arriving at the People's Palace, where he was received by Xi for a bilateral meeting in which 15 agreements were signed in which, according to the Brazilian side, in the long term Chinese investments in Brazil for some US$ 10,000 million.

Lula made the statement when recalling that yesterday, in Shanghai, he visited the factory of the telecommunications giant Huawei, leader in the fifth generation internet (5G), objected to by the US.

For his part, Xi gave a boost to the figure of the leader of the Workers' Party that governs the largest Latin American economy for the third time. "China places relations with Brazil at the top of our foreign relations. You are our old friend and a good friend. It was with your attention and support that relations between China and Brazil achieved a great leap," the host praised.

 

According to Xi, "the Communist Party is leading the nation in a concerted effort to transform China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and promote national rejuvenation on all fronts through a path of modernization. This will unlock new opportunities for Brazil and other countries of the world".

 

The summit was interpreted by the Brazilian media as a strong message to the United States, displaced in 2009 by China as Brazil's main partner: Joe Biden's administration at the summit held with Lula in February in Washington did not secure investment and hardly offered US$ 50 million for the Amazon fund to encourage regional economies.

Geopolitics

Before seeing Xi, Lula met with the leader of the People's Assembly (Parliament), Zhao Leji. There he assured that world geopolitics must change supported by both China and Brazil, within the framework of his speech for the reform of international institutions and the need to trade in local currencies, leaving aside the dollar.

 

"It is together with China that we have been trying to balance world geopolitics, discussing the most important issues," said President Lula. "We want to raise the level of the strategic association between our countries, expand trade flows and, together with China, balance global geopolitics," said the Brazilian.

 

Lula was received by Xi at the People's Palace with military honors and by a group of children waving Brazilian flags to the rhythm of the song "New Time" by Brazilian musician Ivan Lins. This detail of a song made in 1980 that predicted the end of the military dictatorship was interpreted in Brazil as the closing of the controversial Bolsonaro chapter.

 

In the 49-point joint declaration, Brazil ratified the recognition of only one China, with Taiwan. Both countries also supported their initiatives to seek a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine, although they did not detail the plans.

 

In 2009, during Lula's second consecutive term, China displaced the US as Brazil's main trading partner, and since then the relationship has grown with the export profile of raw materials, which is why Lula said he was looking for investments to create innovations with value. aggregate in Brazilian soil.

 

In the speech open to the press, which preceded the private meeting, Lula spoke of intensifying Brazil-China relations in areas such as science and technology, exchange of university students, cultural relations, strategies to combat climate change, clean energy, production electric cars and buses.

 

“I think my government's understanding of China is that we must work hard to create a Brazil-China relationship that is not just a relationship of purely commercial interest. Although the commercial interest is very important," said Lula, who even called for China's commitment to the energy transition and the reduction of polluting emissions.

 

At the South American level, China confirmed that it wants to deepen relations with Mercosur as a bloc, without reference to possible unilateral agreements that the Uruguayan government had encouraged.

 

Caring for the environment

“We are counting on China in our fight to preserve planet Earth, advocating for a healthier climate policy where people can breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water. For this, an energy transition is extremely important so that we can produce cleaner energy, especially wind, solar, biomass," Lula said.

 

“Brazil has 80% of its energy totally clean and is committed at this moment, in my government, to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 to make our contribution to the preservation of the planet,” she continued.

 

Lula also took advantage of the speech to thank China for its support for the election of former president Dilma Rousseff as head of the New Development Bank (NBD), the bank of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), a tool for the corporation of the global south that seeks to be an alternative to the World Bank to finance development actions. This is Lula's third official visit to China.

 

The Brazilian Economy Minister, Fernando Haddad, said at a press conference that betting on China does not take away the importance that the US has for Brazil. However, he assured that there is a "divestment of American companies" on Brazilian soil, alluding to the departure of the automaker Ford, whose abandoned plant intends to be used by the Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD

 

"Lula wants Chinese investment to reindustrialize and the agreements are in that direction," said Haddad, who insisted that Brasilia works to encourage the use of local currencies in trade with both China and Mercosur. China also granted Brazil a US$1.5 billion credit line for the powerful National Bank for Economic and Social Development (Bndes).