Lula in China: Brazil President looking to strengthen ties, gain Ukraine aid
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00:00 From Beijing, France 24 correspondent Yenna Li has more now on what's at stake.
00:03 This is President Lula's first visit outside the Americas since his re-election and the world is
00:09 waiting to see if he can come up with a peace club in the coming days. President Lula wants
00:14 President Xi Jinping to join him in creating a group of countries to mediate the end of the
00:20 war in Ukraine. And Lula arguably has a little bit more credibility to initiate such a proposition
00:25 than his Chinese counterpart. Brazil has a history of non-alignment and he at least has already
00:31 called President Zelensky unlike President Xi and his foreign policy advisor has already traveled
00:36 to Moscow where he was granted a sit down with Vladimir Putin. And it's no secret of course that
00:42 many leaders of the developing world want to remain neutral in the conflict in Ukraine. That
00:48 said there is a little bit of skepticism for this plan coming from Ukraine and its allies not in the
00:54 least because Brazil is a part of the BRICS forum which also includes Russia and because the concept
00:59 of neutrality when one country has invaded another is very difficult to fathom for many of Ukraine's
01:05 neighbors. Just last week also President Lula publicly suggested that Ukraine should give up
01:11 Crimea in exchange for peace and that idea was swiftly rejected by Kiev. This state visit isn't
01:18 just about Ukraine of course it's also about a trade. It's clearly on the top of the agenda.
01:22 Brazil sent a massive delegation of more than 200 business leaders to China. China is Brazil's
01:29 number one export market. Brazil is China's number one investment destination in Latin America. And
01:35 ahead of this visit President Lula had said that he wanted to sell even more Brazilian products
01:40 to China and Beijing of course is looking out for more diverse economic partners especially since
01:46 the souring of its ties with the United States. Brazil and China are to ink around 20 bilateral
01:52 deals by the end of the week.