President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leaves this Tuesday (21) for Southeast Asia, where he will visit Indonesia and Malaysia. The program includes participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit and the East Asian (EAS) leaders’ meeting. Lula will also participate in bilateral meetings with host countries and other visiting heads of state, including a possible meeting with the president of the United States (USA), Donald Trump, who has not yet been confirmed. The president returns to Brazil on the 28th.
Among the main objectives of the trip, according to the Brazilian government, is a political rapprochement with countries in the region and the possibility of expanding bilateral trade.
“It is the first time that a Brazilian president has participated, as a guest, in an Asean summit”, highlighted Ambassador Everton Frask Lucero, who is director of the Department of India, South and Southeast Asia at the Itamaraty Palace, in conversation with journalists to detail the trip.
“It is an opportunity to meet and meet with several world leaders, as all major countries have some type of relationship with Asean and participate in the summit”, he noted. Among the meetings already confirmed, for example, is that between Lula and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, scheduled for Sunday (26), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Founded in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, Asean is a regional organization that promotes economic, political, security and socio-cultural cooperation among its members. In addition to the founding countries, the bloc is also made up of Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and, during this next summit, it will formally receive the accession of East Timor, which will become the 11th member.
“From an economic point of view, the 11 countries, including East Timor, which now joins the association, have a total of more than 680 million inhabitants with GDP [Produto Interno Bruto] aggregate of about US$4 trillion. Considered together, then, they would form the third largest country in terms of population and the fourth largest economy in the world”, Lucero pointed out.
The ambassador also highlighted that Brazil’s trade with Asean countries exceeded US$37 billion last year and continues to grow. If it were a single country, Asean would be Brazil’s fifth main trading partner, behind China, the European Union, the United States and Argentina.
In the midst of a situation of imposing unilateral tariffs on international trade, Asean can further expand the possibilities for the flow of exported Brazilian products, as the bloc’s countries accounted, last year, for more than 20% of Brazil’s global foreign trade surplus, with a favorable balance to the national balance of around US$ 15.5 billion, according to Itamaraty.
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Programming in Indonesia
Lula’s first stop will be Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, the largest economy in the region, where the president will be received on a state visit to reaffirm the bilateral strategic relationship. It is also a return for the recent visit by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, which took place in July this year, shortly after the 17th BRICS Summitheld in Rio de Janeiro.
Lula’s arrival in the country is scheduled for 3:30 pm (local time) this Wednesday (22), without an official agenda. Jakarta’s time zone is 10 hours ahead of Brasilia time. The following day, Thursday (23), starting at 10:30 am (0:30 am in Brasília), the official reception ceremony for Lula, First Lady Janja da Silva and the other members of the Brazilian delegation is scheduled at the Indonesian Presidential Palace, followed by a private meeting between Lula and Subianto. The two presidents will later meet with ministers from both sides, to sign official acts, which must include at least a memorandum of understanding in the area of renewable energy, according to information from Itamaraty. Finally, they make a statement to the press.
“Indonesia has been Brazil’s strategic partner since 2008, it is the third largest democracy in the world, the fourth most populous nation and the main economy in Asean. High-level contacts between Brazil and Indonesia have intensified in recent years.
Minister Mauro Vieira [chanceler] he was there in 2023, in the first year of the current government, when the revitalized action plan for our strategic partnership was signed, which envisages bringing the two countries closer in terms of dialogue and cooperation in various areas of both the bilateral agenda and multilateral negotiations”, said Ambassador Lucero. Among the priority areas of interest for Brazil and Indonesia are agricultural trade, food security, bioenergy, sustainable development and defense.
After lunch hosted by the President of Indonesia, Lula continues the afternoon in Jakarta, where he will participate in the closing of a business forum with representatives from both countries. Among Brazilians alone, around 100 businesspeople are expected. On Friday (24), the president has a meeting scheduled with the secretary general of Asean, Cambodian Kao Kim Hourn. The entity’s headquarters are in the capital of Indonesia. In the afternoon, Lula leaves for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Asean and Honoris Causa
In Malaysia, Lula’s schedule begins on Saturday (25), with an official visit to the country and a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The two leaders have been developing a political rapprochement in recent years, especially because they share common views on global issues such as the Palestine issue, the war in Ukraine, the fight against hunger and the need for reform in the global governance system.
“What is interesting to note is that we are already a long-standing, traditional trading partner of Malaysia, but we had never reached the point of elevating this partnership to a level that was, let’s say, more political, more politically visible. So, the trip to Malaysia is now an affirmation that we are expanding our presence, we have an active voice and concrete interests in a country that is central to the growth dynamics of the Southeast Asian region, one of the most economic dynamics of this century”, argued Ambassador Everton Frask Lucero.
In terms of bilateral cooperation, Brazil and Malaysia must sign memoranda related to the production of semiconductors, a segment in which the Asian country is a power, and also in other matters of science, technology and renewable energy.
Still next Saturday (25), Lula will receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Malaysia, on which occasion he will give a speech on the Brazilian vision of social, cultural and political relations with Asia.
On Sunday (26), the president will participate in the opening session of the 47th Asean Summit, in the morning, local time. On that day, he is expected to participate in two events with Brazilian and Malaysian businesspeople and another with the Asean businesspeople forum.
Bilateral meetings
The afternoon of this day is reserved for bilateral meetings with other leaders. So far, there has only been confirmation of the meeting with Narendra Modi, from India, but other meetings should be confirmed.
There is also the expectation of a possible meeting, on that day, between Lula and Trump, amid negotiations for rapprochement between Brazil and the United States since the imposition of commercial rates by the US government in August. Trump is one of the foreign leaders expected at the next Asean Summit and East Asia Summit.
Lula’s trip continues on Monday (27), with the president’s participation in the 20th East Asia Summit, the EAS (its acronym in English), also in Kuala Lumpur. At this meeting, he will give a speech to the other leaders present.
The EAS is a forum that brings together 18 countries from Asia and Oceania, including members of Asean itself, as well as Russia, the USA, South Korea, Australia, India, China, Japan and New Zealand. The meetings tend to be annual, usually after the Asean summits.
Watch a report by Repórter Brasil, from TV Brasil, about Lula’s agenda in Asia
