The French president concludes his third and last day of an official visit to Brazil, where he stated that mutual investments between the EU and the South American giant must improve. The Elysée leader also announced that France will help Brazil develop nuclear-powered submarines and pledged to launch a $1 billion investment plan for a sustainable economy in the Amazon.
Emmanuel Macron concludes his visit to Brazil, where the agenda took the French president to Belém, Itaguí and Sao Paulo.
In a press conference this Thursday, March 28, the leader of the Elysée and his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke out against the war in Ukraine, crime in the two countries and illegal mining.
The official trip, the first by a French president to Brazilian territory in 11 years, was marked by the good harmony between both leaders, after the erosion of the ties between the two nations during the Administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The trade agreement with Mercosur, the way it is currently negotiated, is a terrible agreement
Among the areas they have addressed are environment, defense agreements, as well as the commitment to continue negotiations to achieve a trade pact between Mercosur and the European Union, a plan until now stalled.
Regarding the latter, the French president has been critical: “The trade agreement with Mercosur, the way it is currently negotiated, is a terrible agreement. For you and for us,” said Macron on Wednesday, March 27, in a forum with businessmen in Sao Paulo.
The text, obsolete for the French president, must be renewed. “It was negotiated 20 years ago. We have to rebuild it,” he stressed.
But Macron also wanted to make it clear that will oppose any agreement that does not meet the same environmental and health standards as the Europeans. And in the background, the environment: for Macron, who has opposed the rulers who support the current agreement on numerous occasions, the pact does not take climate change into account.
Commitment to the Amazon
The criticism of this bilateral relationship did not come from nowhere. His first act of the week, together with President Lula, aimed to safeguard the Amazon. In a significant setting, surrounded by trees and in the heart of the earth, the city of Belém hosted an event where Both leaders announced an agreement that provides for investments of almost 1.1 trillion dollars in the next four years to finance sustainable development projects that help reduce polluting emissions and preserve the Amazon rainforest.
The project, which will attract both public and private resources, will be aimed at initiatives to promote the bioeconomy in the Brazilian Amazon and will also include French Guyana.
“With Lula we decided to launch the Belém Call, with which we join together in this fight, make concrete decisions and try to bring our natural parks closer together to transform them into the largest in the world and where scientists can work together to preserve nature.” , stated the French president in the presence of Brazilian indigenous leaders.
For this reason, he also wanted to have words of commitment to communities that have seen their lands usurped for decades and, finally, deforested. “We are committed to achieving zero deforestation in the Amazon until 2030, despite the fact that no one asked us to do so nor does any convention require it,” Macron stressed.
Defense cooperation
Collaboration in this matter already existed, but it intends to go further, as announced by the two leaders.
After 16 years “of cooperation in the production of submarines (…) In the coming decades we want to go further and launch more ambitious projects,” said Macron.
Some words he spoke within the framework of the ceremony inauguration of the third submersible, built as part of a bilateral cooperation program.
But the French leader had not come just to cut a ribbon. He also committed to Brazil achieving the development of naval nuclear propulsion technology. For this reason, and with the guarantees that this technological transfer would be used peacefully, “France will be at Brazil's side,” stressed the French head of state.
This is a until now sensitive issue between Brasilia and Paris.
The South American giant has been trying to convince France to increase technology transfers to help it integrate the reactor into the submarine and sell it equipment linked to nuclear propulsion.
However, until now the European nation has been reluctant to transfer such technology, due to the challenges of nuclear proliferation.
But, now, “there are discussions about the possibility of France cooperating” with Brazil on this issue, said a day before the European head of Brazilian diplomacy, María Luisa Escorel de Moraes, who recognized that it is a “strategic issue, sensitive and delicate.”
Airbus already has a plant in Minas Gerais, where it produces submarines and helicopters, but Macron stated that he wants to cooperate with Brazil in the production of other military equipment. “We want Brazil and France to be great and powerful because the situation in the world worries us,” highlighted the French president.
With EFE, AP and local media
#Macron #concludes #visit #Brazil #French #president #agree #Lula #Silva