President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his delegation arrived this Tuesday (November 29th) in Doha, Qatar, the second stop of the trip whose central goal is the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). Qatar is the last country the PT member will visit before heading to the United Arab Emirates, where the climate conference is taking place in Dubai.
In Qatar, Lula will take part in a forum with Brazilian and Qatari businessmen as well as a meeting with Emir Tamim bin Hamad alThani, the country’s highest authority. In addition to trade relations, Lula must deal with the withdrawal of Brazilians from the Gaza Strip amid the war between Israel and the religious fundamentalist group Hamas.
According to Itamaraty, there are still 86 Brazilians and family members in the Gaza Strip who want to leave the region bombed and invaded by Israel. Qatar is one of the main organizers of the humanitarian ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians from the region.
Ministers and authorities accompany Lula
As of the last update of this article, Planalto had not published Lula’s official agenda in Doha. Before Qatar, the President was in Saudi Arabia, where he took part in a number of engagements, such as a roundtable with business and government officials and an Embraer seminar, and also signed cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia.
Lula is accompanied by the ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance), Silvio Costa Filho (Ports and Airports), Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy), Carlos Fávaro (Agriculture), Rui Costa (Citizens’ House) and the Chief Adviser of the Special Committee of the Presidency Advisers of the Republic , Celso Amorim, as well as Jean Paul Prates (Petrobras), Aloizio Mercadante (BNDES), Jorge Viana (Apex Brasil) and the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSDMG).