Russian Delegation Meets with Brazil’s New President Lula, Vow To Deepen Cooperation

Jan. 2, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Speaker of Russian Federation Council Sen. Valentina Matviyenko, who headed the Russian delegation to Brazil for Lula da Silva’s inauguration Jan. 1, had a lengthy face-to-face meeting with the new President. Matviyenko said of the meeting that “Russia is determined to further actively develop relations with friendly Brazil.” The two countries “have the same vision of a future world—a multipolar and just one.... I also want to stress that Brazil is a very reliable, important and well-tested partner.”

According to Matviyenko, Lula said he wants to improve Brazil-Russia relations:

“It is very important that during the meeting, the newly elected President confirmed his readiness and interest to reset Russian-Brazilian relations in terms of increasing trading and economic cooperation in science, engineering, and the environmental and other fields. He supported the idea of promptly launching a high-level commission, which, unfortunately, has not met in session for several years for a number of reasons, including subjective ones,”

she reported.

The Russian senator especially highlighted that Brazil, and Lula personally, was a founding member of the BRICS. Lula made a number of proposals for deeper cooperation with the BRICS, which he asked to be relayed to Russian President Putin.

There was apparently also discussion around increasing Russian fertilizer shipments to Brazil, with an emphasis on the “rethinking of logistics and the payment system, which would eliminate existing obstacles for cooperation in this sphere,” Matviyenko reported.