"Brazil is regaining importance as a country in the multilateral sphere," says Ricupero regarding Lula's trip to China.
Former minister reports that "there are fights between businessmen who want to be part of the president's delegation": "businessmen weren't going anywhere because Bolsonaro wasn't well-liked."
247 - Former minister Rubens Ricupero stated that there is a pent-up demand from Brazilian business leaders who wanted to be part of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) delegation to China. "There are fights among businesspeople who want to be part of the delegation. There is a pent-up demand because for years Brazilian businesspeople couldn't go anywhere because Bolsonaro wasn't well-liked," Ricupero told the newspaper. The Globe.
According to the report, the Brazilian government estimates that around 300 businesspeople will accompany Lula on his trip to the Asian country. The expectation is that more than 20 trade and technology agreements will be finalized. "I have the impression that the main purpose of this visit is to re-establish a relationship with China that existed in the past," said the former minister. "Brazil without Bolsonaro will preside over the G20 (group formed by the world's largest economies) in 2024, and will be at the head of the BRICS bank. Brazil is regaining importance as a country in the multilateral sphere," he pointed out.
Ricupero assesses that “during the time of former President Jair Bolsonaro, relations with China were at a very low point, both on the part of Bolsonaro, his family, and his ministers. Even before becoming president, Bolsonaro went to Taiwan with his sons, and during his presidency, there was a great deal of hostility on his part towards China. There was a ministerial meeting with insults directed at China that the Supreme Court did not authorize to be released, but the Chinese certainly became aware of it. Eduardo Bolsonaro (congressman, son of the former president) blamed China for Covid and they even tried to expel the Chinese ambassador. The relationship reached a complicated point. Although the Chinese did not openly create an overt crisis, I have no doubt that many things were done at the time as retaliation, such as the delay in the supply of raw materials for medicines. With the change of foreign ministers (Ernesto Araújo left and Carlos França took over), the Brazilian government became more cautious.”
The former minister also believes that the meeting between Lula and President Xi Jinping “will be dominated by the importance of economic and commercial issues. But with China it's different.” “In 2009, the penultimate year of Lula's government, China became Brazil's largest trading partner. Until then, the US held that position. And Asia is very important: the countries of the continent buy 42% of Brazilian exports. Not only China, but Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and others have a significant weight in our trade relations,” he highlighted later on.
Ricupero also stressed that the idea of Lula discussing a peace proposal with Xi Jinping to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is unlikely to have a major international impact. “There might be some kind of initiative whereby Lula asks the Chinese for a mediation effort to end the war in Ukraine, but I have my doubts as to whether this can work. The Chinese are quite close to the Russians, and Chinese mediation is not considered serious by other countries. China has announced a multi-point plan for Ukraine, and the Russians are not going to withdraw their troops from that country,” he said.