São Paulo – The Brazilian vice president, Michel Temer, will pay an official visit to Lebanon from the 18th to the 23rd this month. He will travel with a delegation of 39 businessmen, according to the Brazilian foreign ministry (Itamaraty). Temer is of Lebanese descent.
According to his press office, the vice president will meet with the Libyan president, Michel Sleiman, the prime minister, Najib Mikati, and the Parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Temer will also attend a ceremony onboard the frigate União, of the Brazilian Navy, which was sent to Lebanon with a 300-strong crew to become part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).
The schedule also includes a visit to the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center established this year in Beirut, the first Brazilian institution of its kind to be created in the Middle East under president Dilma Rousseff, according to the Itamaraty; a visit to Betabura, the homeland of Temer’s parents; a meeting with businessmen; a meeting with Brazilians who live in the Arab country; and attendance to a ceremony celebrating the Lebanese independence, on the 22nd.
Brazil is home to the world’s largest Lebanese immigrant and descendant community. Lebanon was one of the first Arab nations visited by the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in 2003, at the start of a process for establishing closer ties between Brazil and the Middle East that spanned his entire administration, which ended in 2010.
According to information from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Brazilian exports to Lebanon generated revenues of US$ 252 million from January to October this year, 25% more than in the same period of last year. The main items shipped were meats, livestock, coffee, sugar and cashew nuts.
On the other hand, Brazilian imports of Lebanese products stood at US$ 1.6 million, 16.5% more than in the same period of last year. The main import products were food preserves, plastic products, wines, machinery, and food preparations.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
