Brazil: Why Did Lula Travel to China?

President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will be visiting China this week, eyeing a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which is expected to focus largely on trade, including the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The trip to Beijing was set to take place last month but was postponed as the Brazilian leader was hospitalized due to pneumonia, according to CNN.

Lula announced that the trip was underway, with Brazil reestablish its relations with China, which has been its main trading partner since 2009.

The Brazilian president noted that trade between Brazil and China has increased 21 times since Lula's first visit to the East Asian country in 2004. It was a time that he was serving as the country's president for the first time.

Aside from their trade relations, Xi and Lula are also reported to talk about the war in Ukraine, with the two leaders earlier posing themselves as possible "mediators for the conflict."

China made repeated calls for a political settlement in Ukraine in February, which marked the one-year anniversary of the invasion.

Lula has earlier noted that he would probably talk to Xi about China's role in the Russian invasion and achieving peace in Ukraine.

Lula China Visit

Lula said before leaving for his trip to China that he would invite the Chinese leader to Brazil in an attempt to reinforce relations between Brazil and Beijing.

Reuters reported that Lula said in an interview with state-owned broadcasting company EBC that he will be inviting Xi to Brazil for a bilateral meeting, with the goal to have Xi get to know Brazil and show him the projects that the Latin American country has an interest in Chinese investment.

Lula added that they want Chinese investments to create new jobs and "generate new productive assets" in the country.

Experts claim that Lula is trying to "carve out a distinctive role" for Brazil when it comes to geopolitics around the around.

Brazil currently maintains diplomatic relations with Washington while engaging in talks with its rivals such as China and Russia, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a news conference that Lula leading a huge delegation to China shows the high importance both countries have attached to the state visit and bilateral relations, especially since it was after the Brazilian president's recovery from pneumonia.

Brazil-China Relations

Analysts from China and Brazil were surprised that the visit have been rescheduled sooner, which shows that both nations have "great sincerity and strong motivation" when it comes to promoting their partnership, as cited by Global Times.

Meanwhile, Brazil has yet to join the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The program is a global infrastructure strategy started in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations.

Wang explained that the BRI is an open and "transparent cooperation initiative" when asked whether Brazil will sign an agreement for the cooperation.

Brazil will mark the 22nd Latin American country to be included formally in the Chinese infrastructure program.

Latin American studies expert, Guo Cunchai, said that China and Brazil are both "neutral major powers with global influence."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: 'A beautiful relationship': Brazil's Lula heads to China to foster trade ties - from FRANCE 24 English