President participates in meeting with Saudi authorities and companies during trip to the Middle East
The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) participated this Wednesday morning (29.Nov.2023) in the closing session of the Brazil-Saudi Arabia round table, in Riyadh. In his speech, he invited the Middle Eastern country to become Brazil’s partner in the development of a new, more sustainable energy matrix.
“If Saudi Arabia is the most important country in oil and gas production, in 10 years, Brazil will be called ‘the Saudi Arabia of green energy’”Lula told businesspeople and authorities in the country. “Be partners with Brazil in the development of this new energy matrix that the world needs, that the world dreams of and that we can offer”he completed.
Watch (28min15s):
According to the PT member, the Brazilian government travels the world not only to ask for investments and sell its products, but to “build partnerships”.
“We are traveling in an attempt to build partnerships. It is not just knowing how much the Saudi Arabian fund can invest in Brazil, but it is also knowing how much Brazilian businesspeople can invest in Saudi Arabia”, he stated.
In this sense, Lula invited Saudi leaders to “cross-investments between Petrobras and Saudi companies for the production of fertilizers. And give reassurance to the world with the uncertainty created by Russia’s war in Ukraine”.
“We are talking about economic development while the world is talking about war”, said Lula in criticism of the conflict. “War brings nothing but misery and death, but destruction. When a country goes so far as to declare war, it is because it is declaring the failure of the capacity for dialogue.”
Finally, the Brazilian president also highlighted the role of the Middle Eastern country in the BRICS (group formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In the PT member’s assessment, Saudi Arabia needs “help strengthen the BRICS Bank” and collaborate with changing the facet of multilateral banks, “so that they can try to finance the development of the poorest countries without exorbitant interest rates, which ends up killing any possibility of investment in the countries”.
On Tuesday morning (Nov 28), Lula disembarked in Riyadh, his 1st stop on a tour of the Middle East and Germany. The PT member met with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, where the strengthening of bilateral relations between the countries, investments in both directions and opportunities for national companies in the Arab country were discussed.
Following the end of the round table, Lula has lunch with businesspeople and participates in the opening of the Embraer Seminar. Afterwards, she has commitments in Doha, Qatar, and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where she will attend COP28, the UN Climate Conference (United Nations). Finally, the PT member will head to Berlin, Germany, for dinner with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
PRESIDENT’S TRAVEL
This is the PT member’s first international trip since he had hip and eyelid surgery on September 29, and Lula’s last major international trip of the year. When he returns to Brazil, he will have visited 24 countries and spent 62 days abroad.
At the beginning of November, the president said that he managed to fulfill his objective of recovering Brazil’s image abroad with his trips and, from 2024, he will dedicate himself to traveling around Brazilian states and visiting construction sites.
The survey of Power360 Considers 1 day every time Lula spends more than 12 hours outside the country, whether on the day of embarkation or disembarkation.
Read more:
#years #Brazil #Saudi #Arabia #green #energy #Lula