Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, has postponed his trip to China because of bacterial pneumonia caused by the flu. This was announced by the presidency. The President was hospitalized on March 23 at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in Brasilia with flu-like symptoms and his health is not yet good enough to allow him to travel, although thanks to treatment with antibiotics he is doing better, according to his doctors reported.
Lula’s boarding flight to Beijing was scheduled for Friday evening, then was delayed until Sunday. Today, however, the departure has been canceled in order to postpone it to a later date. The postponement of the trip has already been communicated to the Chinese authorities, who have been asked to give a new date.
Lula was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on March 28. With the trip to China, the Brazilian head of state Xi wanted to propose the establishment of a “peace club”. According to Lula, it is “time for Beijing to get its hands dirty” to negotiate a solution to the conflict, as reported in our newsletter.
In fact, the Brazilian president would have been the first head of state to visit Xi after his re-election. If the two meet, economic interests are also at stake (Brazil is one of the BRICS countries, editor’s note).
Expectations of the Brazilian President’s trip were high: at the time, it was supposed to mark the country’s entry into the New Silk Road and give new impetus to the so-called Bank of Brics. But for now we have to wait for the okay from the Brazilian doctors to postpone the visit to China.