Emmanuel Macron will set in stone the relaunch of the Franco-Brazilian partnership with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, during a state visit next week to Brazil, after the dark years of the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
The French president first goes to Guyana before a trip from Tuesday to Thursday to Brazil.
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“We are in a Franco-Brazilian moment
,” argues the French presidency, highlighting the
“many points of convergence”
with Lula, particularly on
“major global issues
. ”
“This moment comes after a four-year eclipse and a virtual freezing of political relations between our two countries during the presidency of Bolsonaro”
, who increased the excesses during his mandate (2019-2022).
In the midst of the crisis over the fires in the Amazon, Jair Bolsonaro and his ministers had made very derogatory, even insulting, remarks towards President Macron and his wife, which had finished poisoning the relationship.
Same desire to return to favor on the side of Brasilia where we welcome the partnership with France, permanent member of the UN Security Council and third investor in Brazil, behind the United States and Spain.
“France is an essential actor, essential for Brazilian foreign policy
,” notes the European head of Brazilian diplomacy, Maria Luisa Escorel de Moraes.
President Lula grants his host the honor of a state visit, only the second since his re-election at the end of 2022.
Numerous disputes
The French head of state, who is making his first bilateral visit to Latin America in Brazil since 2017, intends to increase his trips to the region between now and the end of his mandate.
President Lula will welcome his guest from the first stage of his journey on Tuesday in Belém (north), in the Amazon, then on Wednesday at the Itaguai base, near Rio, where Franco-Brazilian submarines are manufactured and finally on Thursday in Brasilia, capital of the country.
If there is no shortage of contentious subjects, from Ukraine - Lula refuses to take sides against Russia - to the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, the two leaders are above all keen to move forward on this that unites them: the ecological transition and the reform of international governance.
“We will not be able to win the fight for the climate if we do not also win the fight against poverty.
It’s really a conviction that brings them together
,” points out the French presidency.
Brazil, which this year chairs the G20 of the most industrialized countries and will host the COP30 in Belém in 2025, is at the heart of these issues.
The most populous and richest country in Latin America, it has regained its place on the international scene since the return of Lula and is a key player in the “Brics”, the bloc of emerging countries with which Paris wishes to get closer.
In the wake of COP28 in Dubai, the two heads of state will display a common ambition of
“reducing fossil fuels”
and
“much greater solidarity with the poorest countries to reduce inequalities”
. summarizes the Élysée.
Nuclear propulsion
In terms of defense, France and Brazil are cooperating on the production of four conventionally powered submarines - the third will be launched on Wednesday - and helicopters.
Brasilia could also call on Paris to help it develop nuclear propulsion on a fifth submarine.
“It is a strategic, sensitive, delicate issue (...) but the two countries also discuss this subject
,” conceded Maria Luisa Escorel de Moraes.
France having always excluded such technology transfers,
“an announcement in this direction would send a strong signal to Brazil and to Lula”
, considers Gaspard Estrada, specialist in Latin America at Sciences Po Paris.
President Lula should also reiterate his call for the rapid signing of the EU/Mercosur agreement, blocked by France against a backdrop of agricultural crisis and renewed protectionism in Europe.
“This could enter into the discussion (...) but the goal is not to negotiate, to convince anyone,”
however, underlines the Brazilian diplomat, in unison with the Élysée.