Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived today in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, from China, where he sought to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with the Asian power.
The Brazilian president was received at the city’s airport by the Emirati Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and in the evening he will meet with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, president of this hydrocarbon-rich country on the Arabian Peninsula.
During the visit, “issues on the bilateral agenda will be discussed, including trade, investment, energy transition, climate change and global security,” said a statement from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
“Since 2008, the United Arab Emirates has been among Brazil’s three main partners in the Middle East” and in 2022 “it was the main destination for Brazilian exports among Arab countries,” he added.
In Beijing, the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) announced that Brazil is “back” on the international scene, after the four years of relative diplomatic withdrawal that characterized the mandate of his predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
The Brazilian president, who aspires to be part of a peace mediation between Russia and Ukraine, urged the United States to stop “inciting war” in his last conference as he left Beijing, the city where he met yesterday with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Unlike Western powers, China and Brazil have not imposed sanctions against Russia and are trying to position themselves as mediators to end the conflict that sparked a full-scale invasion launched by the Kremlin on February 24 last year.
The United Arab Emirates, which also adopted a position of neutrality in that conflict, received a significant number of Russian businessmen, especially in Dubai, seeking to avoid Western sanctions.
Bilateral trade between the Emirates and Brazil rose to 5,768 million dollars in 2022, up 74.5% compared to the previous year, with a surplus of 740 million in favor of Brazil, according to official Brazilian data cited by the AFP news agency. .
Of the 3,254 million dollars invoiced, the main export product of the South American country was chicken meat (29% of the total), followed by sugar (14%), gold (14%), cellulose (8.2% ) and beef (8%).
On the import side, 89% of the total value corresponded to the purchase of oil and bituminous materials, derived from hydrocarbons.
Source: Ambito
