Brazil's Lula to visit China April 12-15: Chinese Foreign Ministry
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The Brazilian President will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss trade and Ukraine mediation.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a rally in Curitiba, Brazil, September 17, 2022 (Reuters)
Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit China from April 12-15, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
Lula, 77, will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing tomorrow to discuss trade and Ukraine mediation, having overcome pneumonia that forced him to postpone the trip set earlier.
The Brazilian President, who was originally due to visit the Asian powerhouse from March 25-30, will meet with Xi on Friday.
They "will talk about the war in Ukraine," Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told reporters, with Lula hoping to promote his proposal for mediated talks to the war in Ukraine.
By the time Lula returns home, a group of mediator countries will have been "created", noted Vieira.
China has proposed a 12-step resolution to the conflict, based on a ceasefire and dialogue, a plan Xi discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow last month.
"Those are basic conditions" for peace, said Vieira, describing Beijing's proposal as "very positive".
It is noteworthy that Lula has also refused to join Western nations in sending weapons to Ukraine.
Lula to invite Xi to come to Brazil
Just over three months into his third term as president, Lula is making his third major foreign trip, having previously visited Argentina and the United States.
China is Brazil's largest trading partner and key to Lula's ambitions to re-establish the South American giant on the global geopolitical stage.
Speaking on the eve of his departure to China, the Brazilian President said he would invite his Chinese counterpart to Brazil.
"I am going to invite Xi Jinping to come to Brazil, for a bilateral meeting, to get to know Brazil, to show him the projects that we have of interest for Chinese investment," Lula said in an interview with state-owned broadcasting company EBC, pointing out that he is planning to "consolidate" the relationship with China.
"What we want is for the Chinese to make investments to generate new jobs and generate new productive assets in Brazil," he indicated.
Officials in Beijing also see Brazil -- a leader in the global south -- as a keystone in their strategic and economic plans.
Last week, China hosted a forum for 500 Brazilian and Chinese business people that resulted in the signing of more than 20 cooperation agreements.
One of those was to allow business transactions between the two countries to be carried out in reais and yuan rather than US dollars.
The deal to ditch the US dollar is expected to reduce investment costs and develop economic ties between the two countries, Brazil's Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) pointed out.
Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record of more than $150 billion in 2022.
Brazil was also the main destination for Chinese investment in Latin America from 2007 to 2020, worth $70 billion according to the Brazil-China Business Council.
From Beijing, Lula will travel to Shanghai, where his domestic political ally Dilma Rousseff, who succeeded him as president in 2011, recently took over as head of the New Development Bank, also known as the BRICS bank.
During Lula's last two terms, from 2003-10, Brazil joined Russia, India, China, and South Africa in creating the BRICS group of emerging economies.
On his way home, Lula will visit the United Arab Emirates.
Read more: Brazil rejoins Union of South American Nations after four years
