Brazil Committed To Promoting Ties With All Countries Without Taking Sides

By Voon Miaw Ping

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- Brazil, the largest country in South America, is committed to working with all nations to promote greater global engagement and cooperation amid a shifting world order and rejects geopolitical polarisation.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva emphasised that the country maintains an independent and balanced foreign policy in its global engagement, asserting that Brasilia will not take sides or align to any single power.

“We want to have relations with all the countries in the world. We do not accept a new Cold War that for 50 years has ruined the lives of humanity.

“We want to have a good relationship with the United States and a good relationship with China, not because of the tariff. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and it (trade) is still growing,” he told a news conference here Monday in conjunction with his inaugural visit to Malaysia to attend the 47th ASEAN Summit.

The President also dismissed suggestion that improved relations with Washington might affect ties with Beijing, adding that Brazil values its partnerships with the US, Malaysia and also Europe.

Lula said his meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday was concluded in a positive note and both sides look forward to more constructive discussions to resolve tariff issue. 

“This has no implication in the relationship between Brazil and China. None. The United States makes an agreement with whoever it wants. I make an agreement with whoever I want.

“I want us to depend on all the countries in the world, each one a little bit. So we do not have preferences,” he added.

This, he said, will benefit the Brazilian economy and its people.

Lula, who is the Chair of BRICS, is on a three-day official visit to Malaysia as Guest of the Chair of ASEAN in conjunction with the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits here.

The visit marked his first to Malaysia since assuming office for a new term in January 2023, and also the first by a Brazilian President to ASEAN Summit since the country becomes the bloc’s sectoral dialogue partner in 2022. 

-- BERNAMA