The war leaves a stain on the peak of the Luso-Brazilian reconciliation

Among the fans waiting for the Brazilian president to arrive at the Belem Palace (Lisbon), this Saturday the Ukrainian flag slipped, which the Portuguese police quickly removed. A clear accusation Lula da Silva for his statements in his recent visit to Beijing, criticizing the delivery of weapons to Kiev. Although the meeting of the Brazilian and his wife with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousaserved with a dose of controversy, the Russian invasion turned what was supposed to be a tribute to the reconciliation of Basil and Lisbon into a more serious geopolitical debate.

Lula met with a group of Ukrainians and condemned the invasionbut he persisted in his attitude of seeking a solution without weapons to conflict. “Better to find a way out at the table than trying to find it on the battlefield.” He proposes to do this through a number of neutral countries, among which he sees the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Turkey or the European Union.

Cooperation agreements

The geopolitical discussion between the two presidents preceded bilateral summitwhich was attended by numerous ministers who signed more than a dozen cooperation agreements. Among them, a joint effort in the fight against climate change and commitment to renewable energy sources, with the need to strengthen economic ties. The most was expected in the matter of citizenship, a sanitary facilities and most importantly, it enables to nostrify the names of primary and secondary education.

The communities of each country in the other are huge and that is why Rebelo de Sousa has argued in recent years that it is important to improve their living conditions. The Portuguese president has suffered several Jair Bolsonaro’s rudeness, who canceled some matches at the last minute and did not officially visit Portugal. In fact, it has been a decade since a Brazilian president paid a state visit to Lisbon and seven years since the two countries, which are considered “brothers”, have not held a bilateral summit, although it was an annual one. The harmony between Lula da Silva with António Costa and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is clear, as is their affinity for Portugal; however, he does not stop to see how junior partner in Lisbon, which has already criticized Brazil for its weak participation in the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa. In any case, “the relationship with Portugal will improve a lot”, promised the Brazilian.

The trade agreement that the European Union and Mercosur have been trying to forge for the past five years has been as ubiquitous as a bloat. This will be the key topic of Lula’s visit to Madrid, given that Brazil and Spain will host the temporary presidency of Mercosur, that is, the EU, in the second half of the year.