São Paulo – The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, should visit the Arab countries this year. According to information disclosed by the Lula Institute, he will travel to Egypt in November and should make use of the trip to visit other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The agenda of the former Brazilian president in the region and the countries he will visit has not yet been defined.
Lula met with the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, last Wednesday (8) during a visit by the Egyptian leader to Brazil. Lula and Morsi spoke about the need to expand commercial relations between Brazil and Egypt and to organize a meeting to stimulate partnerships between businessmen in both countries.
During the talks they also discussed the reform on the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) to include representatives from Africa and Latin America and the Brazilian experience in the implementation of social programmes to fight hunger.
At his meeting with Morsi, Lula invited the Egyptian leader to participate in seminar “New unified focus to eliminate hunger in Africa,” of which he is one of the organizers and which is scheduled to take place between June 30th and July 1st, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ever since he left the government, Lula has already visited Qatar on two occasions. In 2011 he was scheduled to go to Egypt and Tunisia, but cancelled the meetings and said that he should travel to the two countries after their elections. In Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki was elected in November 2011. Morsi was chosen to preside Egypt in July last year.
In his first term in office (2003-2010), Lula visited the region and went, among other nations, to the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. It was during the Lula term in office that diplomatic and trade relations between Brazil and the Arab countries in the region intensified.
*Translated by Mark Ament
