Lula participates in the meeting of Portuguese-speaking countries in Sao Tome and Principe, the last leg of his African tour | Policy

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva participates on Sunday (27) in Sao Tome and Principe in the XIV Conference of Heads of State of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP).

This appointment will mark the end of an entire week in which Lula has assumed official responsibilities on the African continent. He will return to Brasilia on Sunday.

At the beginning of the week, Lula participated in the BRICS summit meeting in South Africa, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Subsequently, the President visited Angola, where he met with the local authorities.

In his speeches over the past few days, Lula has emphasized that he seeks to bring Brazil closer to Africa and to strengthen trade and cultural relations with the countries of the continent.

This strategy, which the president has already implemented in his first terms, calls for intensifying the “South-South” partnership in foreign relations, that is, with the countries of the Global South, and not focusing efforts exclusively on partners in the developed world. .

“Often, out of ignorance, Brazilians think that dealing with rich countries is much better. They don’t realize that often rich countries don’t want to do business with us. They want to export high value-added products to Brazil. Lula said in Speech delivered in Angola on Friday (25) “We want to buy only basic commodities, soybeans, iron ore, corn and meat”.

According to the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, the heads of state will discuss, throughout the day, ways to establish mutual support for negotiations in other international organizations, among other points.

“It is a space for discussion between Portuguese-speaking countries and an interesting forum, as there is often mutual support in the nomination of these countries to international forums,” Ambassador Carlos Duarte said.

One of the main topics of Lula African Week was the accession of new countries to the BRICS group starting next year. The group has accepted applications from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia.

For Lula, one of the group’s founders, the world’s geopolitics “is beginning to change.”

“The economy has also started to change. The geopolitics are starting to change because things are happening and we are realizing that we have to organize ourselves […] “Working on an equal footing and in a civilized manner, we start negotiating,” the president said in Angola.

“For Brazil, which has always defended the importance of the Global South, it is important that the BRICS countries are enlarged, despite the loss of their internal strength. When expanding the group [de cinco para 11 países]”The strength of Brazil’s voice is waning,” says Lea Valls Pereira, researcher associated with the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV-Ibre).