"China will pursue high-quality development, accelerate the creation of a new development paradigm and engage in promoting high-level opening-up," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

China's development will open up "new opportunities" for Brazil and the world, the source added.

In Shanghai, President Lula had proclaimed Thursday that Brazil was "back on the international scene", wanting to turn the page of isolation under the presidency of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

The BRICS are a group of emerging countries that brings together Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa, founded in 2006, during Lula's first stint as president (2003-2010).

"No leader can work with a knife to his throat because he is in debt," the former trade unionist said.

The head of state of Latin America's largest economy also lamented that the US dollar is still used for most international trade.

"Inexplicable absence"

"Why would all countries be forced to trade based on the dollar? Who decided that the dollar would be the (reference) currency?" said the Brazilian president.

"Today, a country has to get dollars to export when it could do it in its own currency," he added.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on an official visit to Beijing, on April 14, 2023 in China © Ricardo STUCKERT / Brazilian Presidency / AFP

At the end of March, at an economic forum bringing together several dozen Brazilian bosses in China, the two countries reached an agreement that their exchanges can be carried out in their own currency, without using the dollar.

Two banks - one from each country - have been designated to carry out foreign exchange transactions that will allow the exporter to receive in his currency a payment made by the importer in his home currency.

The forum took place on the dates originally scheduled for Lula's visit, which had to be postponed due to a "mild pneumonia" from which the Brazilian president suffered.

Lula, who has been back in power in Brazil since January, who held talks in Beijing with President Xi Jinping is scheduled to hold a press conference in the early evening.

"The time when Brazil was absent from major global decisions is over. We are back on the international scene after an inexplicable absence," said Thursday the former turner-miller, who visited his US counterpart Joe Biden in February.

Ukraine on the menu

Faced with Xi Jinping, Lula had indicated that he wanted to address the conflict in Ukraine.

China and Brazil have in common that they have never imposed financial sanctions on Russia.

China, on the other hand, is under increasing international pressure to put pressure on Moscow and bring it to the negotiating table.

This is the fourth official visit to China for Lula, who began his third term in January, to, he said Monday before his departure, "strengthen" the relationship of the South American giant with the Asian giant.

"I will invite Xi Jinping to come to Brazil for a bilateral meeting, to show him around the country and show him projects for which we are interested in Chinese investment," he added.

Trade between Brazil and China reached $150 billion in 2022, with $89.7 billion exported by Brazilians to China.

Before returning to Brasilia, Lula will travel to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for a one-day official visit.

© 2023 AFP