Lula celebrates results of his visit to China: “Our relationship is very strategic”

In an interview on Wednesday (May 14), at the end of his visit to China, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted the importance of the trip to expanding partnerships between the Brazilian and the Chinese governments and encouraging private investment between the two countries. Brazil and China signed 20 agreements and adopted 17 other documents to strengthen cooperation in various fields over the next 50 years.

Our relationship with China is very strategic. We want to learn and to attract more investment to Brazil as well. We want more railways, more subways, more technology. We want artificial intelligence. We want everything they can share with us — because we need to learn to work together so that this relationship can bear the fruits we need.”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of Brazil

“Our relationship with China is very strategic. We want to learn and to attract more investment to Brazil as well. We want more railways, more subways, more technology. We want artificial intelligence. We want everything they can share with us — and the correct word is ‘share,’ because we need to learn to work together so that this relationship can bear the fruits we need,” stated Lula.

The president highlighted the importance of exporting Brazilian commodities to China and revealed his wish to diversify the traded products. “We also want to exchange products with greater added value. We want the Chinese to help us advance the technological development that we need. This is where discussing energy transition, climate transition, and artificial intelligence comes in,” he said.

This is Lula's fourth state visit to China, the first since the elevation of bilateral relations to the level of “community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet” in November 2024. This was the third meeting between the Brazilian leader and the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, since 2023.

“I believe China deserves to be looked at with more affection and no prejudice, because China is the economic and technological innovation of the 21st century. This is how we have to look at China: with great appreciation and affection. And this is how I believe China looks at Brazil,” Lula pointed out.

TRADE — The Brazilian president emphasized the growth of trade relations between Brazil and China. “In 2003, when I took office as President of the Republic, we had a trade balance of USD 6.6 billion. Today, we have the privilege of saying that it has reached USD 160 billion, with an upward trend in our trade flow. This is no small feat. But we are not satisfied with the result of USD 160 billion or with the USD 31 billion surplus that Brazil has in its trade with China, because trade between any two countries has to be balanced,” he stated. “I have always said that a good trade between two countries is like a two-way street: we buy and we sell more or less equally, so that there is no major imbalance in the budget of each country. And that is what we came here for,” added the Brazilian president.

BRICS — Lula also addressed the importance of BRICS —an economic and diplomatic cooperation group of which Brazil and China are members, with its next summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7. “Yesterday I said to Xi Jinping: BRICS is our possibility to change history a little, and to bring those who are excluded into the political and economic system. This is why BRICS is important. I am positive that, in Brazil, in July, we will hold the best BRICS meeting ever held since the bloc was created,” he stressed. 

PEACE —During the press conference, Lula also celebrated the possibility of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. “It was with great joy that we found the opportunity to talk about peace during our visit to Russia. And it was with great optimism that I saw the acceptance of the proposal by Putin [Vladimir Putin, president of Russia] and Zelensky [Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine], and that President Xi Jinping and I included the outcome in a joint statement we released, in which we congratulated both Putin for his proposal and Zelensky for accepting it, regarding their potential meeting in Istanbul to truly begin exchanging words instead of gunshots," Lula declared.

COMPANIES — The Brazilian leader had a busy schedule on Monday (12). After attending four meetings with executives from Chinese companies in the sustainable energy and defense sectors, two major announcements were made: an investment of USD 1 billion in the production of SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) by the Envision Group, and the creation of a Research and Development (R&D) Center for renewable energy, through a partnership between Windey Technology and SENAI CIMATEC.

The Brazilian president also participated in the closing ceremony of the Brazil-China Business Forum. Brazil celebrated the attraction of approximately BRL 27 billion in Chinese investments, facilitated by the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil). President Lula also met with representatives from health sector companies. The agenda included the announcement of bilateral agreements to establish a center of excellence for vaccine research and development in Brazil, as well as a proposed strategic partnership to build a robust industrial platform for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). Memoranda of understanding were also signed in the field of imaging equipment (VMI).

CELAC — On Tuesday (13), President Lula and President Xi Jinping participated in the opening ceremony of the 4th CELAC-China Forum (FCC), an intergovernmental cooperation platform that fosters dialogue between developing countries and advances the interests of the Global South. The meeting is part of CELAC’s broader external agenda, which also includes regular dialogues with the European Union, the African Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, and Türkiye. “Chinese support is crucial to getting highways, railways, ports, and transmission lines off the ground. But the economic viability of these projects depends on our countries’ ability to coordinate and give these initiatives a regional scale,” the Brazilian president emphasized at the event.

AGREEMENTS — On Tuesday (13), President Lula also took part in the signing of joint acts with President Xi Jinping. A total of 20 agreements were signed to strengthen cooperation between Brazil and China over the next 50 years, covering a wide range of areas. Among the documents announced during the ceremony were the Brazil-China Joint Declaration, a joint statement on the crisis in Ukraine, and 15 additional agreements, memoranda, and protocols.

One of the agreements provides for the joint establishment of a Technology Transfer Center between Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação/MCTI) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. A Joint Declaration of Intent was also signed between MCTI and the China National Space Administration regarding the sharing of space data with Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In a joint statement, Lula and Xi Jinping reiterated their firm commitment to continuing the cooperation agenda, to jointly promote the modernization processes of Brazil and China, facilitate investments, promote regional interconnectivity, and contribute to sustainable development.

PORTS — On the second day of the trip to China, Minister of Ports and Airports, Sílvio Costa Filho, announced that Chinese companies would invest in Brazil’s port sector and have expressed interest in participating in the auction for the Santos-Guarujá Tunnel. President Lula had launched the bidding process for the underwater tunnel—the first of its kind in Latin America—at the end of February. “There will be investments of more than BRL 6 billion. These companies will participate in the auction in August. Within the next 30 days, a group of companies will travel to Brazil to actively engage in forming consortia for the project,” the minister said.

“We also signed a set of initiatives with the port production sector, through which we expect investments of nearly BRL 5 billion in Brazil’s public ports,” said Minister Sílvio Costa Filho. He also confirmed the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Civil Aviation University of China. The partnership will enable the exchange of experiences and promote technological alignment aimed at improving the governance of Brazilian airports.

INVESTMENT — China is one of the main sources of foreign direct investment in Brazil, with significant contributions to the electricity, oil extraction, transportation, telecommunications, financial services, and industrial sectors. Since 2003, according to the Brazil-China Business Council (Conselho Empresarial Brasil-China/CEBC), Brazil has been the leading destination for Chinese investment in Latin America, accounting for 39 percent of the regional total. The CEBC estimates that between 2007 and 2023, Chinese investment in Brazil totaled USD 73.3 billion, spanning 264 projects across all five regions of the country. Within the industrial sector, the most prominent areas of investment include automotive, electronics, and machinery and equipment. A total of 93 industrial and information technology projects account for 36 percent of all Chinese ventures in Brazil.

RELATIONSHIP — The relationship between Brazil and China extends beyond the bilateral sphere. The two countries maintain dialogue through multilateral platforms such as BRICS, the G20, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and BASIC—a partnership among Brazil, South Africa, India, and China focused on environmental issues. In this context, President Lula’s visit provided an opportunity for him and President Xi Jinping to explore synergies between their development strategies and investment programs, and to strengthen coordination on regional and multilateral issues—including within the G20, BRICS, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP), which will be held this November in Belém, in the Brazilian state of Pará.