(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA))
São Paulo – Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will travel to China this weekend and is expected to arrive on March 26 to an official visit at the invitation of president Xi Jinping. Before returning to Brazil, he'll make a stop in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates , on March 31.
This will be Lula's first official visit to an Arab country in his third term. lula visited egypt to attend cop27 last november as a guest. He was the president-elect back then but hadn't be sworn in yet, so it wasn't an official visit. The emirate of Dubai will host COP28 in November.
The bloc of 22 Arab countries is Brazil's third largest trade partner, only behind China and the United States. Last year Brazil exported nearly USD 18 billion to the Arab states and imported some USD 15 billion from the bloc.
The UAE is the leading importing country of the Arab bloc. In 2022 Brazil exported USD 3.25 billion to the Gulf state and imported USD 2.5 billion. Poultry, sugar, gold and pulp were the leading Brazilian goods sold to the UAE. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and Bahrain rank among Brazil's five leading Arab partners.
Chinese appointments
President Lula has meetings scheduled in Beijing with Xi Jinping, prime minister Li Qiang and National People's Congress chairman Zhao Leji to discuss topics related to the bilateral agenda like trade, investments, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change, and world peace and security.
In Shanghai on the 29th and 30th Lula will visit the headquarters of the New Development Bank (the bank of the BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), where Brazil's former president Dilma Roussef will take over as head. She helped found the bank in 2014.
The presidential delegation will consist of congresspeople, governors, state ministers, and businesspeople. The visit will see the holding of business events, seminars and the signing of intergovernmental acts. Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) secretary-general & CEO Tamer Mansour will take part of the delegation.
Since 2009 China has been Brazil's largest trade partners and one of the leading sources of investments on Brazilian soil. In 2022 the bilateral trade hit a record-breaking USD 150.5 billion.
Read more:
lula: brazil pavilion to bring everyone together at cop28
brazil makes bid for belém to host cop30 in 2025
brazil's lula wants to host cop30 2025 in the amazon
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
Ricardo Stuckert/PR
The post brazil's lula to go to uae following visit to china appeared first on agência de notícias brasil-árabe .