Brazil’s radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday for a two-day visit to China that will conclude with a meeting with dictator Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.
The Brazilian government seeks to “relaunch its relations to China,” which has been the South American country’s main trading partner since 2009. Lula’s trip to China was originally scheduled for late March, but was postponed after the Brazilian president was diagnosed with pneumonia.
According to reports from Chinese state media, Brazil may be preparing to join China’s predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) debt trap program.
The Brazilian presidential office informed on Monday that Lula’s agenda in China will kick off in Shanghai on Thursday morning (local time) with his participation in the inauguration ceremony of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as the head of the BRICS trade bloc’s development bank, a competitor to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). BRICS is a coalition consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Rousseff, who was Lula’s political protegé, was impeached and removed from office in 2016 over corruption allegations. The Brazilian president is slated to meet with Chinese businessmen on that day before traveling to Beijing.
“In Shanghai, the first city of our visit to China, where I will participate in the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as president of the BRICS Bank,” Lula posted on Twitter upon arriving in the city on Wednesday.
China’s state-run newspaper Global Times reported on Wednesday that Lula will also visit the newly opened research and development center of Brazilian paper and pulp company Suzano located in Shanghai.
“We firmly believe the visit of the Brazilian delegation to China will bring more opportunities for both countries to work together, learn from each other and generate significant value for their people and for the world,” said Pablo Machado, president of Suzano Asia.
The use of the Chinese yuan to conduct trade between China and Brazil without the need to convert their respective local currencies to the U.S. dollar, initially agreed upon in March, will be another topic on Lula’s agenda. The Brazilian leftist president has been transparent in his goal to diminish the country’s dependence on the American currency. Chinese state media reported on Tuesday evening that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China conducted its first cross-border yuan settlement transaction in Brazil via its local branch company.
According to an anonymous source cited by Bloomberg, Lula is slated to visit Huawei’s innovation center during his stay in Shanghai. The Chinese company has been accused by the United States of allowing the Chinese Communist Party to engage in espionage via backdoor access allegedly built into their network devices.
Lula’s agenda in Beijing on Friday will reportedly include a meeting with Zhao Leji – the head of China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress – before laying flowers in Tiananmen Square. The Brazilian president is then scheduled to hold a meeting with union leaders before meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
The official encounter between Xi and Lula will include an open meeting, a ceremony for the signing of bilateral agreements, and a closed bilateral meeting. After that there will be a gift exchange ceremony, official photos, and an official dinner. Both countries are expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements, ranging from trade, investment, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change, and peace agreements.
During their encounter, Lula will reportedly discuss a proposal with Xi to act as mediators in prospective peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Last week, the Brazilian president said that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky “could not get everything” and urged him to give up occupied Crimea to Russia, seized by Russia in 2014, to end the war between both countries.
“I am convinced that both Ukraine and Russia are waiting for someone else to say, ‘Let’s sit down and talk,'” Lula said during an encounter with journalists in Brasília on Thursday. “And why do I want to sit down to talk with Xi Jinping? It’s because I think China’s economic, military and political importance and China’s relationship with Russia, and even China’s divergence with the United States, gives China extraordinary potential to talk.”
The Ukrainian government almost immediately shot down the proposal.
“There is no legal, political or moral reason that would justify us having to yield even a centimeter of Ukrainian land,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. “Any mediation efforts to restore peace in Ukraine should be based on respect for the sovereignty and the full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
Last week, Lula sent his top foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss prospective paths to peace with Ukraine.
The Brazilian delegation to China led by Lula is composed of government ministers, regional governors, lawmakers, and businessmen. Lula’s trip to China marks the third time the Brazilian president has visited the Asian nation, having visited in 2004 and 2009 during his first two presidential terms.
After their visit to China, Lula and his delegation are scheduled to travel to Abu Dhabi on Saturday for an official visit to the United Arab Emirates before returning to Brazil.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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