Brazil-China Ties Elevated to New Heights with Slew of Accords During Xi’s Visit
Chinese President Xi Jinping undertook a state visit to Brazil in the context of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The stopover in Brasilia occurred in the wake of Xi’s attendance at the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru, and the G20 Summit 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nearly 40 agreements were signed covering infrastructure, energy transition, digital economy, health and aerospace. As a foundational principle for cooperation, Brazil agreed to adhere to China’s flagship initiatives such as Building a Community of Shared Future and the Belt and Road Initiative (#BRI). It is worth noting that the BRI cooperation plan incorporated synergies with Brazil’s National Development Plan (#NDP) including the Growth Acceleration Program, the New Brazil Industry Plan, the Ecological Transformation Plan and the South American Routes Integration Program.
Brazil is already is big exporter of chicken meat to China and thus contributes to the #FoodSecurity in China. During this visit, the trade was extended with new orders of agricultural produce worth USD 450 million for sorghum, sesame, fresh grapes and fishmeal.
The world’s largest chicken meat export, BRF, announced a plan to invest USD 43 million in China to acquire a food processing factory in Henan province. The plan includes another instalment of USD 36 million to modernize the factory. On the other hand, Chinese top automaker Build Your Dream (BYD) and Great Wall Motors (GWM) are also setting up an hybrid and #EV assembly plant in Brazil.
In a bid to challenge Elon Musk’s StarLink, China’s counterpart SpaceSail signed a contract with Brazilian national telecom operator Telebras to enhance broadband access via satellite. More over, both sides will establish a Joint Laboratory on Artificial Intelligence (#AI).
The China Atomic Energy Authority signed a Strategic Cooperation in Nuclear Technology Applications with the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation also agreed to cooperate to promote and develop photovoltaics (#PV) as part of the #EnergyTransition trend.
Both Brazil and China are founding members of #BRICS which is promoting the use of local currencies in international trade. Thus the BRICS Bank or New Development Bank will facilitate a RMB 5 billion ($690M) from China to Brazil which will be denominated in Chinese Yuan.
Bilateral trade volume exceeded USD 100 billion in 2023 and China has become Brazil’s largest trade partner. Brazil enjoys the rare privilege of having a positive balance of trade with China with its exports of crude oil, iron ore and soybean to China accounting for nearly 70% of the total trade. Both sides congratulated each other for elevating the bilateral relationship to new heights.