by: Jessica Ferreira
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for the strengthening of relations between Brazil and China, in a “new strategic partnership”, which is welcomed by the Chinese government.
China’s Chancellor’s spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said on Thursday that China hopes to take the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Brazil as an opportunity to interconnect the Belt and Road initiative with Brazilian development strategies such as the reindustrialization of the country.
This, she added, would lead bilateral pragmatic cooperation to a higher level of quality and level, better benefit the two peoples and contribute to global prosperity. The Chinese spokeswoman added that China and Brazil are both large developing countries and important emerging markets and that Beijing pays great attention to the development of relations with Brazil and always places as a priority.
Mao Ning commented on Lula´s statements this week celebrating Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Brazil this year and adding that cooperation should go beyond the export of commodities, a segment in which Brazil excels worldwide.
“We want to have a big party here in Brazil because President Xi Jinping is coming on an official visit and we intend to discuss with the Chinese a new strategic partnership between Brazil and China,” he said.
“A discussion that involves science, technology, the production of chips and software. In other words, what we really want is to have a strategic partnership that makes the Brazil-China relationship infinitely greater, more prosperous and that can generate jobs in China and jobs in Brazil,” added the president.
When mentioning the country’s relationship with China, Lula also said that the Brazilian government is “against a new Cold War” and wants “commercial freedom, diplomatic freedom, between countries”. “We don’t want anyone trying to control other countries,” he added.
“What has China done? China learned how to do things, trained millions of engineers, millions of specialists and began to produce better than the countries that were there. And today it produces as much or more than other countries, demonstrating that Brazil has to learn,” he said.
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