Lula resumes international travel in 2024 with visit to Africa

The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will resume international travel in 2024 with visits to Egypt and Ethiopia. The return to the African continent is part of the Chief Executive's strategy to reinforce Brazil's position in the so-called Global South and expand trade relations with countries in the region. According to Itamaraty, the trip is eminently political in nature.

One of the main themes of the trip will be mediation in the conflict between Israel and the extremist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Brazil historically defends the existence of 2 States as a solution for the region, with the creation of the Palestinian State. Lula has made calls for a ceasefire and for Hamas to release hostages, which still number at least 130 people. The Brazilian president's pro-Palestinian position should also be the focus of the conversations.

Egypt is one of the main interlocutors of the parties involved in the war. It is the only one that borders Gaza besides Israel, through the Rafah crossing. The country helped Brazil evacuate 115 Brazilians and their families who were in the war zone.

“This circumstance made dialogue with Egypt even more important,” said ambassador Carlos Sérgio Sobral Duarte, secretary for Africa and the Middle East at Itamaraty.

Just like in his first 2 terms, Lula wants to bring Brazil closer to the African continent to once again occupy spaces that are currently dominated by China, Russia, the United States and some European countries, such as France. He assesses that his predecessor, the former president Jair BolsonaroThe (PL) broke ties with the region and lost strategic commercial positions.

Therefore, the government encourages Brazilian companies, especially infrastructure companies, to seek new business in African countries.

When he was in Angola, in August 2023, for example, Lula promised that he would resume Brazilian financing in the country. He also announced the opening of a new consulate in the country to meet the demands of 27,000 Brazilians residing in the country, in addition to facilitating travel for Angolans to Brazil. It was the 1st new foreign service point launched by Lula in his 3rd term.

According to Itamaraty, Egypt is one of the countries with which Brazil has the largest volume of trade in Africa. Brazil exported US$2.31 billion in 2023 to the African nation and imported US$489 million, according to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services. On the continent, it is second only to Algeria, whose bilateral trade reached US$4.2 billion in the same year.

According to the government, the free trade agreement between Mercosur and Egypt, which came into force in 2017, helped 75% of Brazilian exports to the country.

The 2 countries are discussing increasing the number of Brazilian slaughterhouses accredited by the Egyptian government to increase beef exports.

In December, both signed a health agreement to open the Egyptian market to the export of Brazilian fish. Recently, the same procedure was adopted for the sale of bananas and cotton.

The two nations are also discussing the resumption of the air route with a direct flight between São Paulo and Cairo, which should be operated by EgyptAir. The measure must be made possible by an agreement to avoid double taxation of profits from international air transport.

Egypt and Ethiopia have just joined Brics, a bloc formed until 2023 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Last year, with strong support from the Brazilian government, the group approved the entry, in addition to the 2 countries, of Argentina , Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. The new Argentine president, Javier Milei, however, rejected joining the bloc.

The 2 countries must also participate, at Lula's invitation, in the G20, which will be held in November in Rio. In 2023, the African Union, which brings together 54 countries, including the 2 visited by the Brazilian president, became part of the bloc of the largest economies of the world.

In 2023, Lula spent 62 days outside Brazil, when he visited 24 countries in a total of 15 trips from the country. He has been to Africa twice. In July, he only stayed in Cape Verde for about two hours. There he met with President José Maria Neves.

In a statement to the press, he said that the debt that Brazil owes to the African continent because of more than 3 centuries of slavery in the country must be paid by offering educational training to African students. The phrase was harshly criticized.

In August, he visited South Africa, Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe for 7 days. In the South African city of Johannesburg, she participated in the 15th BRICS summit (acronym for the group that brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

Lula started 2024 with the promise that he would stay longer in Brazil to dedicate himself to the municipal elections in October. So far, she has visited 6 states.

One of the priorities of the PT, its party, is to increase the number of PT mayors, especially in capitals. The president also sees the dispute for command of the city of São Paulo as a repetition of the polarization between him and his main opponent, Bolsonaro.

Commitments in Egypt and Ethiopia

Lula leaves for Cairo, the Egyptian capital, this Tuesday (13.Feb.2024). He will leave Brasília at 2pm heading to Cape Verde, in Africa, where he will make a technical stopover, before reaching his final destination. It will be the PT member's 2nd official visit to Egypt. The 1st was in 2003, in his 1st term.

He will have a private meeting with the President of Egypt, Abdul Fatah Khalil al-Sisi on Thursday (11.Feb.2024). Afterwards, he meets with other Egyptian authorities. The president must also visit the headquarters of the League of Arab States.

The PT member arrives in the African country at a time when tensions between Egypt and Israel have increased due to the threat of Israeli military actions in the southern region of the Gaza Strip.

On Friday (9.Feb.2024), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli Army needs to conduct operations in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, to defeat the extremist group Hamas.

The region is currently home to more than 1 million Palestinians who have been displaced from other cities attacked by Israel. It is practically Gaza's last refuge. The Israeli Prime Minister asked the Army to draw up a civilian evacuation plan.

Rafah borders Egypt and has the only crossing from Gaza to territory other than Israel. For this reason, the Egyptian government warned Israel's Western allies that an offensive in the southern region of Gaza could lead to the rupture of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treatysigned in 1979.

The conflict in the Gaza Strip will be one of the main topics of conversations between the presidents. At the meeting, Lula must make Brazil available to assist in negotiations to end the conflict in the region.

Lula was in Egypt in November 2022, when he was still president-elect. At the time, he had been invited by Sisi to participate in COP27, the United Nations climate conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh. It was Lula's first international commitment after winning the elections, even before taking office. According to Itamaraty, the invitation to the Brazilian for a state visit was made on this trip. In 2024, Brazil and Egypt celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations.

On Friday (16.Feb.2024), Lula will travel to Ethiopia, where he will participate as a guest of honor at the African Union Summit. He is also scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 17 or 18.

Latin domes

Soon after returning from Africa, Lula will embark for Georgetown, Guyana, where he will participate in the 46th Caricom Summit (Common Market and Community in the Caribbean), from February 25th to 28th. At the meeting, the Brazilian president must address the tension between Venezuela and Guyana in the dispute over the Essequibo region, currently part of Guyanese territory.

The last time the two nations discussed the issue, both advocated a peaceful solution. The foreign ministers of Guyana, Hugh Todd, and Venezuela, Yván Gil Pinto, met at the Foreign Ministry on January 25 to discuss the case. Brazil has mediated the conversations. At the time, they said there was a willingness to dialogue at a diplomatic level and without threats of using the Armed Forces.

On Saturday (10.Feb.2024), however, satellite images showed that Venezuela has been making movements and accumulating troops near the border with Guyana, even after both countries have committed not to use any types of force and not threaten, directly and indirectly, each other's territorial sovereignty.

Right after Guyana, Lula will head to the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Summit, which will be held on March 1 in Kingstown, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Caribbean.

In the 2023 edition, held in January of that year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lula defended the need to reinforce integration between Latin American and Caribbean countries and said that the region needs to deepen dialogues with China, India and the Union European Union, African Union and Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

The Brazilian president also plans to visit Colombia and Chile in March, but the trips have not been confirmed.