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dubai – Brazil Deals worth around $12.5 billion were signed this week with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China as the country’s president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, wrapped up a visit to Beijing and Abu Dhabi .
The Brazilian president concluded a four-day visit to the United Arab Emirates and China on Monday with major economic deals.
“I came back to Brazil with absolute certainty that it was restoring civilization. The government was doing what it was obliged to do: open Brazil to the world and persuade the world to open to Brazil,” Lula said at a news conference on Monday in Beijing. He added that he looked forward to Chinese and UAE leaders accepting his invitation to visit Brazil as soon as possible.
what happened: Lula visited China on April 13-14 and the UAE on April 15 and signed agreements totaling approximately US$12.5 billion.
Brazil signed agreements worth US$ 2.53 billion (BRL 12.5 billion) with the United Arab Emirates and US$ 10.12 billion (BRL 50 billion) with China.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed received Lula in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, along with the president of the Brazilian Senate, the governor of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, cabinet members and business representatives.
The agreements signed by the two countries mainly revolve around education, sustainable development and energy. In education, Brazil’s Rio Branco Institute and the UAE’s Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy signed an agreement to advance cooperation in diplomatic training through student and professor exchange programmes, knowledge and research, and e-learning.
The UAE and Brazil also signed a memorandum of understanding on climate action and issued a joint statement on multilateral ambition and action on climate change, the UAE’s state-owned news agency WAM reported.
The two countries agreed to develop bilateral economic and trade, and develop in-depth strategic partnerships in the fields of renewable energy, sustainable development, defense, aerospace, food security and agriculture.
The highest value agreement was between Brazil and China, worth $10.12 billion.
Lula met Wang Chuanfu, chief executive of electric vehicle (EV) company BYD, on Thursday and held talks about opening an EV factory in Camasari, Bahia. BYD already produces electric buses in Brazil. He also met Wang Tongzhou, chairman of China Communications Construction Corporation (CCCC), China’s largest construction company that has invested in Brazilian infrastructure projects such as the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge in Bahia state.
On Friday, Lula traveled to Beijing to meet Zhang Zhigang, president of the State Grid Corporation of China, which has power investments in Brazil and operates in 14 of the country’s 26 states.
Lula emphasized Chinese investment in Brazil The focus is on renewable energy and expanding the transmission grid by integrating wind and solar projects.
Why it matters: Brazil is China’s most important trading partner in South America, and a new agreement to conduct bilateral trade in their respective currencies rather than the U.S. dollar is expected to boost trade, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Brazil’s main goal with China is to reset relations with China, which imports 89.7 billion Brazilian products and exports nearly $60.7 billion to Brazil in 2022, according to the Brazilian presidency’s office.
Brazil is also the UAE’s largest trading partner in Latin America, based on non-oil foreign trade figures for 2022, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said in a statement to the UAE’s state news agency WAM.
Zeyoudi added that Brazil is the country’s most important trading partner in the Americas, second only to the United States.
UAE-Brazil trade will continue to grow to reach more than US$4 billion in 2022, WAM reported. Bilateral trade will increase by 32%, 67% and 43% over 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively.
The Brazilian Presidential Palace estimates that the total trade volume between the two countries will increase to US$5.7 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 74%. Agribusiness accounts for the bulk of the trade, accounting for 60 percent of Brazil’s exports to the UAE.
This is the second visit by a Brazilian president to the UAE in 20 years. The 77-year-old served two terms as president between 2003 and 2010. In January, he served as president for a third time after a close election.
Lula, Jailed for about a year and a half for massive corruption including money laundering, he helped lift millions of Brazilians out of poverty during his first two terms, according to NPR. In his third term, which began in January, he inherited a struggling economy and rising poverty.
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