President Lula (PT) and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman met this Sunday (September 10) for about 20 minutes at the Taj Palace Hotel on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
MbS, as the prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia is known, did not bring any gifts to Lula, the Brazilian government reported. Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is under investigation for receiving jewelry from the Saudis and not sending the gifts to the public archive but keeping them in his personal collection.
It was the first bilateral meeting between Lula and MbS, and Saudi Arabia has repeatedly expressed interest in investing in Brazil in the oil, gas, mining and green fuels sectors.
However, Saudi Arabia has been the main opponent of the idea of including specific targets for the timeline for phasing out fossil fuel use and a date for peak carbon emissions in the G20 final declaration.
The Gulf kingdom has invested in fuels like green hydrogen in a bid to “greenwash” — improve the country’s reputation in the environmental sector — according to environmentalists.
Lula was due to meet with MbS in France in June during the Financing for Development Summit organized by French President Emmanuel Macron, but the bilateral meeting never materialized. The first meeting was then scheduled for Saturday (September 9), but the Saudis canceled it with Lula because his meeting with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, was unexpectedly extended.
According to a Brazilian government source who attended the meeting, the Saudi prince said at the beginning of the meeting that Lula was a very wellknown person that he had heard about several times.