Best News Network

China and Brazil reset ties with tech, environment accords, agree on Ukraine

Article content

BEIJING/BRASILIA — Brazil reset its diplomatic ties with China, its largest trading partner, with a state visit on Friday where they agreed to boost investments and cooperation on technology and sustainable development, while urging peace talks in Ukraine.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several of his ministers signed the accords with President Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials in Beijing.

Article content

Xi said China has made relations with Brazil a diplomatic priority and the two countries should deepen practical cooperation in sectors including agriculture, energy, and infrastructure construction, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Advertisement 2

Article content

“We have an extraordinary relationship with China, a relationship that every day gets more acute and stronger,” Lula said before his meeting with Xi.

Brazil and China need to work together so that the relationship is not merely one of commercial interest, he added.

The two leaders agreed that dialog and negotiation are the “only feasible way” to resolve the war in Ukraine, according to a joint statement. They called on other countries to play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement between Ukraine and Russia.

Lula’s visit follows four years of rocky relations with China under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, when trade continued unaffected but investment by Chinese firms dropped.

Article content

Advertisement 3

Article content

In a new focus for bilateral relations, the two countries decided to strengthen cooperation in environmental protection and coping with climate change, and will set up a committee for this in their strategic partnership talks.

They agreed to act together with developing countries in international forums on climate issues while calling for increased financing for sustainable development projects.

China committed to backing clean energy and green hydrogen production in Brazil, but there was no agreement on a bilateral green investment fund that Brazil was hoping would finance and subsidize the development of renewable energy.

China and Brazil did agree to set up a working group to pursue cooperation on semiconductors, strengthening ties with Beijing in areas of sensitive technology.

Advertisement 4

Article content

Information technology has been a sticking point for China’s relations with the United States and European countries that have in some cases banned Chinese products for security reasons.

Brazil, however, is interested in attracting Chinese investment in these areas, despite pressure from the U.S. government in recent years discouraging the use of fifth-generation mobile equipment from tech giant Huawei Technologies.

Officials said Brazil is open to the installation of a Chinese semiconductor factory in Brazil and is interested in developing the technology in cooperation with China.

On Thursday, Lula visited Huawei’s research center in Shanghai and was briefed on its technology, also trying on its virtual reality headset.

Advertisement 5

Article content

Lula said in public remarks in Beijing that his Huawei visit was “a demonstration that we want to tell the world we don’t have prejudices in our relations with the Chinese.”

“No one will prohibit Brazil from improving its relationship with China,” he added.

China overtook the United States as Brazil’s top trading partner in 2009 and is a major market for Brazilian soybeans, iron ore and oil. Brazil is now the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America, driven by spending on high tension electricity transmission lines and oil production.

On Friday, the two countries agreed to encourage their companies to invest in each country in infrastructure, energy transition, logistics, mining, agriculture and high-tech industries.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said the two were deepening studies to conduct trade in local currencies, noting that the idea of lowering dependence on the dollar had long been on the agenda of the BRICS group of major emerging nations. (Reporting by Ethan Wang, Judy Hua and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Meg Shen in Hong Kong, Lisandra Paraguassu and Anthohy Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Brad Haynes and Hugh Lawson)

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Join the Conversation

Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our  Twitter, & Facebook

We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.

For all the latest Business News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.