Lula & CELAC in Beijing for Trade!
Beijing, May 11 (EFE).-
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Beijing on a state visit during which he is expected to conclude new bilateral agreements with China and participate in the IV China-CELAC Ministerial Forum, scheduled for May 13.
Lula, who landed on Saturday night, said on social media platform X that during his stay he would close “new partnerships” and sign “cooperation agreements in multiple areas”.
The president, who earlier visited China in April 2023, described this trip as a great step forward in friendly relations and strategic closeness with China, Brazil’s largest trading partner since 2009.
Lula is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping but a date is yet to be announced.
In Beijing, the Brazilian leader will meet with his counterparts from Colombia and Chile, Gustavo Petro Gabriel Boric, respectively, who also are to attend the China-CELAC forum.
This forum comes amid a global shakeup marked by the return to power in the United States of Donald Trump, whose administration has launched an unprecedented trade war and is also pressuring American countries to diminish or cut off their ties with Beijing.
In this regard, Lula had said in April that he did not want to choose between the US and China and expressed opposition to a new form of “cold war.” This stance was soon supported by China, which underlined that Latin American and Caribbean countries were sovereign and independent.
Since 2009, China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and exchanges have grown since then, reaching a record $157.5 billion in 2023, according to official figures.
CELAC, or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, is made up of 33 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. EFE lcl/sc
