Brazil's President Announces 'Strategic Rapprochement' with China

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Beijing on Saturday for a three-day visit that he said aims to "strategically rapprochement" with China and broaden Beijing's dialogue with Latin America through the China-CELAC Forum.

In the Chinese capital, Lula will meet with President Xi Jinping and plans to sign at least sixteen agreements and arrangements concerning, among others, cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, Chinese investments in Brazil, industry, energy, mining, science, technology, health care and culture.

Earlier, the Brazilian president was in Moscow, where he took part in celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and met with President Vladimir Putin.

"I have arrived in Beijing, where I intend to sign new agreements on cooperation in many areas. This will be another great step forward in the relations of friendship and strategic rapprochement with China," the Brazilian president wrote in a short statement published on Brazilian social networks.

During the current visit of the Brazilian president to the Chinese capital, his fourth in just over two years, he is scheduled to sign a total of sixteen negotiated agreements on 12 and 13 May, while 32 other agreements are under discussion.

The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) prepared four hundred carefully designed projects to expand Brazilian-Chinese trade before President Lula da Silva left for Beijing, proposing, among other things, replacing specific American products with Brazilian ones. These include modern refrigeration equipment.

President Lula da Silvia is accompanied on his trip to China by nearly two hundred Brazilian entrepreneurs.

As Brazilian media commentators have been emphasising in recent days, the meeting between the presidents of Brazil and China during Lula da Silva's visit to Beijing will take place in the shadow of US President Donald Trump's customs policy, which primarily harms China's interests, but is also painfully felt by all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Donald Trump said that Latin American countries will have to choose between the United States and China. He pointed to the recent declaration by the Panamanian government that it does not intend to continue participating in China's Belt and Road initiative as an example of the right decision. (PAP)

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