Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was forced on Saturday March 25 to postpone his state visit to China indefinitely due to pneumonia. The 77-year-old head of state was to discuss the conflict in Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. ” This report has been communicated to the Chinese authorities.underlined in a press release the secretariat for the communication of the presidency, without providing a new date of travel.
Presidential adviser for international affairs, Celso Amorim, who served as foreign minister under Lula’s first two governments (2003-2010), however told the daily The globe that interest in the visit to China had not changed and that it would be rescheduled ” as soon as possible “.
“The president is doing very well and [son état de santé] progressing well »assured the doctor who examined him, Roberto Kalil Filho, on a daily basis Folha de S. Paulo, adding that he could return to work next week, although his trip to China will have to wait at least ten days. The Brazilian and Chinese governments have also started discussions and a new date must be set. ” shortly “announced the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha.
A busy week
President Lula was originally scheduled to visit China on Saturday, but due to a “mild pneumonia” the trip, which involves about twenty hours by plane, had been postponed for a day on Friday.
“Despite the clinical improvement, the medical service of the Presidency of the Republic recommends postponing the trip to China until the end of the cycle of viral transmission”specifies doctor Ana Helena Germoglio in the press release of the presidency, president that Lula suffers from a “bacterial and viral bronchopneumonia due to influenza A”.
It was high blood pressure that prompted Lula to undergo medical examinations on Thursday evening upon his return to Brasilia, according to the daily Folha de S. Pauloafter a trying day in Rio de Janeiro, where he had notably visited the shipyard of the Scorpene submarines manufactured in partnership with the French group Naval Group.
The entire presidential week was very busy with visits by the Brazilian leader to four states in the immense Brazil. On Friday, he stayed at his official residence in Alvorada, Brasilia, where he met ministers and elected officials.
China, Brazil’s largest trading partner
The icon of the left was to go to Beijing at the head of a large delegation of six ministers, governors, deputies, senators and around 200 business leaders. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner: bilateral trade reached $150 billion last year.
His official agenda was to begin on Tuesday with an interview with Xi Jinping, with whom he was to notably address the conflict in Ukraine and present a proposal, with still vague outlines, of mediation by a group of neutral countries. The Chinese president has already told Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit this week to Moscow, of a twelve-point peace plan, which includes respect for the territorial sovereignty of all countries.
During his first two terms, Lula had visited Beijing three times. This new visit, less than three months after his return to power, was to testify to his concern to reconnect with multilateralism, after the mandate of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, marked by great isolation. Worried of “talk to everyone”the Brazilian president visited Argentina in January and the United States in February.
At the end of November, shortly after his victory against Mr. Bolsonaro after a very tense and exhausting campaign, he had undergone larynx surgery. A laryngoscopy then ruled out the presence of a new tumor in the former milling turner, who had suffered from laryngeal cancer in 2011. He was declared in remission the following year, after undergoing radiotherapy sessions and of chemotherapy.