The new dates for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) trip are set. The Brazilian travels to Beijing and Shanghai between the 11th and 14th of April.
The date had been proposed by the Brazilian government, after Lula was forced to cancel his trip this week because of pneumonia. The goal of both sides was to reschedule the new date with a certain urgency, signaling the dimension of the interest of Beijing and Brasilia for the strategic rapprochement between the two countries.
Xi accepted the proposed dates and the meeting between the two presidents will take place on the 14th in Beijing. On that occasion, all the more than 20 agreements that would have been signed this week will finally be announced, including in the areas of semiconductors, satellites, BNDES and tourism.
One day earlier, on April 13, Lula will be in Shanghai for the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as president of the NDB, known as the bank of the Brics. She has already assumed her duties. But she awaits the visit of the Brazilian president to carry out the ceremony.
Lula will travel to Asia again in May, for the G7 summit in Japan. But the Itamaraty did not want to tie one meeting to the other, fearing that Beijing would interpret the gesture as a reduction in the political importance of the trip.
With the new date, the PT will miss a meeting with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, which was scheduled for April 12. But Lula would be back in time to receive the Russian chancellor. Serguei Lavrov will be in Brasilia on April 17 to meet the president.
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