Brazil seeks African partnership
Tuesday April 12, 2005 11:27 - (SA)
ABUJA - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has visited Nigeria to seek a new political and economic partnership between the nations and their continents.
Nigeria's president Olusegan Obasanjo and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were speaking as Lula visited Abuja as part of an African tour.
Nigeria and Brazil are allies in the fight to persuade the World Trade Organisation to agree a better deal for farm exports from the developing world, and both are seeking a seat on a possible expanded UN Security Council.
Lula said that both Latin America and Africa had been looking too much towards the United States and Europe to help them develop their economies and that the time had come for developing countries to work together.
"Myself together with President Obasanjo and with dozens of other leaders; now is the time for us to make a decision. Do we want to continue to be poor, or do we want to take a step forward?" asked the Brazilian leader.
"If the 19th century was the century for Europe, the 20th century was the century for the United States. Why can't the 21st century be ours? It only depends on us and if we can believe in that," he declared.
"I believe that the time has come that we should look towards each other and that we should proceed. There are many things that we should do together that we have not yet done," he said at a joint media call.
"Our trade relations could be much more intense. Our cultural relations can be much more intense too. Then our political liaison can be definitely much more than it is today, and for that we are now in this gathering," he added.
Lula was greeted at Obasanjo's Aso Rock Villa by an honour guard and a 21-gun salute. He went immediately into bilateral talks with Obasanjo.
"There is so much we have in common, there is so much that we can explore bilaterally between Africa and South America, that I personally hope that this visit will be the beginning of greater things," said Obasanjo.
Obasanjo is the current chairman of the African Union and both Nigeria and Brazil are the biggest nations on their respective continents and potential economic powerhouses.
Many Brazilians are descended from Nigerian slaves kidnapped from west African by European traders and transported across the Atlantic and the traditional rites of the coastal peoples continue to have much in common.
Lula is expected to meet later in the day with Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the executive secretary of the west African regional bloc Ecowas, and again with Obasanjo on Tuesday, after which some bilateral agreements will be signed.
The Brazilian leader said that he had invited Obasanjo on a return visit to Brazil and that he hoped that more bilateral deals would be signed then.
Lula is on a tour of African countries. He left Cameroon on Monday and is expected to head on to Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.
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