{"id":261184,"date":"2019-10-30T16:12:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T19:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=261184"},"modified":"2019-10-30T20:49:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T23:49:11","slug":"im-in-love-with-saudi-arabia-says-bolsonaro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/im-in-love-with-saudi-arabia-says-bolsonaro\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m in love with Saudi Arabia,\u2019 says Bolsonaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riyadh \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m in love with Saudi Arabia,\u201d president Jair Bolsonaro said this Wednesday (30) during a business seminar at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (pictured above<\/em>), in Riyadh. The Saudi-Brazilian Business Forum was the final appointment in the president\u2019s two-day stay in the Arab country. He\u2019s coming away with a pledge from the local sovereign fund to invest USD 10 billion in different sectors within Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of the Forum, Bolsonaro told the press that the trip\u2019s results were better than expected. \u201cIt was much more than we\u2019d imagined, the exceptional hospitality, interest and trust in a new Brazil from our Saudi Arabian friends,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing beats one-on-one contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

On several occasions, the Brazilian president thanked the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and said they built a good relationship \u2013 even a friendship.<\/p>\n

He stressed that Brazil needs these investments and Saudi Arabia needs food security. \u201cAnd if it\u2019s up to us, they\u2019ll get it,\u201d he said, referring to the fact that Brazil is a major food producing and exporting country. Saudi Arabia, in turn, has the funds available to invest, but must rely on imports to plug its food gap.<\/p>\n

On one of the many occasions in which he spoke with journalists throughout the day, Bolsonaro heaped praise on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Vision 2030 pluriannual plan to liberalize and diversify its economy. \u201cThey have a very medium- and long-term view, and we should follow their strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the morning, at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), aka \u201cDavos in the Desert,\u201d Bolsonaro discussed preferred investment targets in Brazil, like infrastructure, sanitation, oil and gas, artificial intelligence and defense. \u201cWe need the infrastructure resources to offload production from the central part of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

OPEC<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the conference, the president mentioned the November 6 pre-salt auction, just as he\u2019d done in two other Arab countries \u2013 the UAE and Qatar \u2013 earlier this week. \u201cI\u2019d like for you to join. After all, between the experience that you have and the experience that we have with Petrobras, we can build a great partnership and help stabilize fossil fuel prices around the world,\u201d he told the audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
With Olayan, Bolsonaro said he\u2019d like to see Brazil join the OPEC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In answering a question from Saudi business mogul Lubna Olayan, he said he\u2019d like to see Brazil join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). She said Brazil is one of the top ten oil producing countries in the world, and asked Bolsonaro about the industry outlook. The president replied that in 10 to 15 years\u2019 time, Brazil may become the fifth or sixth biggest producer. \u201cThere\u2019s even some talk about Brazil joining the OPEC,\u201d he said, to what Olayan retorted: \u201cOur minister of Oil would like that.\u201d Saudi Arabia\u2019s minister of Energy, Abdulaziz bin Salman, had been in a panel a while earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can discuss it,\u201d said Bolsonaro. \u201cI\u2019d have to hear my minister of Economy [Paulo Guedes] and my minister of Mines and Energy [Bento Albuquerque] on this, but speaking for myself, I\u2019d like for us to join the OPEC. We have the potential for it. We have bigger oil reserves than some of the OPEC member countries,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

OPEC comprises 14 exporting countries and exerts a powerful influence on international oil supply and prices.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The president and the king<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In between the IFF and the Saudi Chambers seminar, Bolsonaro was welcomed by the Saudi king, Salman bin Abdulaziz, and by other authorities. Documents got signed including agreements on visitor visa facilitation and defense industry cooperation; memorandums of understanding on partnerships in acquisitions, industry, research and development, defense technology, cultural cooperation, and cooperation between the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Saudi Fund for Development; and a cooperation program was entered into by the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) to \u201cenhance bilateral investment relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/strong><\/a> president Rubens Hannun, who was part of the business delegation that travelled alongside Bolsonaro, stressed the relevance of this kind of visit and one-on-one meetings. \u201cThe Arab Chamber has always held business missions, and from the very beginning, this type of initiative proved important in building closer ties and fostering business,\u201d he said. Hannun believes that eye-to-eye contact is conducive to rapid problem-solving and the establishment of partnerships.<\/p>\n

A case in point is the Saudi sovereign fund\u2019s pledge to invest in Brazil, the agreements that were reached and the talks involving Brazilian and Saudi businesspeople. \u201cThis was very successful. Important agreements have been signed and the primary goal of attracting investments has been fulfilled. These are very effective results,\u201d he argued. And this goes both ways, since BRF of Brazil announced that it will invest in a food processing plant<\/a> in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Hannun said that partnerships between Brazil and the countries that were visited are strategic, and not limited to trade relations alone.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Dias\/PR<\/div>\n
Jos\u00e9 Dias\/PR<\/div>\n
Saudi Pressa Agency (SPA)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president said the country surpassed his expectations and underscored his good relations with crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":261207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[9859,11910,12312,11346,10430,12313,12304,12309,9672,9595],"class_list":{"0":"post-261184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-foreign-affairs","8":"tag-arab-chamber-en","9":"tag-arabia-saudita-en","10":"tag-bolsonaro-en-2","11":"tag-bolsonaro-en","12":"tag-jair-bolsonaro-en","13":"tag-jair-bolsonaro-en-2","14":"tag-moohammed-bin-salman","15":"tag-moohammed-bin-salman-en","16":"tag-rubens-hannun-en","17":"tag-saudi-arabia-en"},"wps_subtitle":"The president said the country surpassed his expectations and underscored his good relations with crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}