Brazil: why President Lula postpones his visit to China

Europe 1 with AFP 19:59 p.m., March 25, 2023

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, was forced Saturday due to pneumonia to postpone indefinitely his state visit to China, where he was to discuss the conflict in Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The Brazilian president "decided to postpone his trip to China. This postponement has been communicated to the Chinese authorities," the presidency's communication secretariat said in a statement, without providing a new travel date.

Lula was originally scheduled to travel to China on Saturday, but due to "mild pneumonia" the trip, which involves about twenty hours by plane, was postponed Friday by a day. "Despite the clinical improvement, the medical service of the Presidency of the Republic recommends postponing travel to China until the end of the viral transmission cycle," said Dr. Ana Helena Germoglio in the presidential statement.

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High blood pressure

It was high blood pressure that prompted Lula to undergo medical examinations Thursday night on his return to Brasilia, according to the daily Folha de S. Paulo, after a trying day in Rio de Janeiro where he had visited the shipyard of Scorpène submarines manufactured in partnership with the French group Naval Group. The entire presidential week was very busy with visits by the Brazilian leader to four states of the immense Brazil. On Friday, he stayed at his official residence in the Alvorada, Brasilia, where he met with ministers and elected officials.

China, Brazil's largest trading partner

The icon of the left was to travel to Beijing, at the head of a large delegation of six ministers, governors, deputies, senators and about 200 business leaders. China is Brazil's largest trading partner, with two-way trade reaching $150 billion last year. His official agenda was to begin Tuesday with a meeting with Xi Jinping, with whom he was to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and present a proposal, still vague contours, for mediation by a group of neutral countries.

The Chinese president has already told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow this week about a 12-point peace plan, which includes respect for the territorial sovereignty of all countries.

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"Talk to everyone"

During his first two terms (2003-2010), Lula visited Beijing three times. This new visit, less than three months after his return to power, was to testify to his concern to reconnect with multilateralism, after the mandate of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro marked by great isolation. Anxious to "talk to everyone", the Brazilian president visited Argentina in January and the United States in February.

At the end of November, shortly after his victory against Jair Bolsonaro after a very tense and exhausting campaign, he had undergone surgery on the larynx. A laryngoscopy then ruled out the presence of a new tumor in the former milling turner, who had suffered from laryngeal cancer in 2011. He was declared in remission the following year, after undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy.