Lula is visiting Shanghai to boost relations with China

BEIJING (AP) – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit the financial hub of Shanghai, China, on Thursday on a trip to cement ties with the South American giant’s largest trading partner and drum up political support for his efforts to mediate the conflict. in Ukraine.

Lula arrived in China on Wednesday night and was scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday before concluding his visit on Saturday.

The Brazilian government said the two sides are expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements during Lula’s trip, a reflection of improving relations after a difficult period under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula will also attend the official ceremony in Shanghai at which his close adviser and former President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff will be sworn in as head of the New Development Bank, a Chinese-backed institution.

The organization presents itself as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which are mainly controlled by the United States and its Western allies. The Bank focuses on the BRICS developing group of countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foundation, which was established more than seven years ago, has approved 99 loan projects worth more than $34 billion, mainly for infrastructure projects.

Much of that credit went to Brazil for projects such as a metro system in the country’s financial capital, São Paulo.

According to the Brazilian government, during his meeting with Xi, Lula is expected to talk about trade, investment, re-industrialization, energy transition, climate change and peace agreements.

China is Brazil’s largest export market, buying tens of billions of dollars of soybeans, beef, iron ore, poultry, pulp, sugarcane, cotton and oil each year. Brazil is the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America, according to Chinese state media, although Lula has positioned himself against Chinese organizations buying Brazilian companies.

One of the agreements that Lula will sign in China will be for the production of the sixth satellite built in the binational program, one that will monitor biomes such as the Amazon jungle.

Beijing recently lifted restrictions on Brazilian beef, which were imposed in February after a rare case of mad cow disease was discovered.

From a political point of view, leftist Lula’s visit symbolizes Brazil’s return to international relations after he succeeded Bolsonaro in January.

The conservative populist leader and his family members have raised tensions with the Chinese authorities on several occasions by making statements about the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic or telecom company Huawei. Bolsonaro admired conservative nationalists and showed little interest in international affairs or traveling abroad.

Lula, who will visit a Huawei research center in Shanghai on Thursday, traveled to Argentina and Uruguay in January and to the United States in February, a sign of the importance he attaches to international affairs, according to experts. During his first presidency, he toured the world, especially in his second term, where he visited dozens of countries, and he had visited China twice before.

A key part of Lula’s strategy abroad is his proposal that Brazil and other developing countries, including China, broker peace in Ukraine. However, his suggestion that Ukraine give up Crimea to facilitate peace angered Kiev and its staunchest supporters.

China has also tried to play a role in ending the conflict, albeit in a way very close to Moscow. He refused to condemn the invasion, criticized economic sanctions imposed on Russia and accused the United States and NATO of fomenting the conflict.

Russia and China declared an “unbounded” relationship in a joint statement last year, and Xi underlined this closeness by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month.

The Chinese proposal made in February has elements in common with Lula’s proposal, such as a cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations, although it says nothing about the return of Ukrainian lands captured by Russia and its separatist allies.