Alckmin and Rui Costa go to Beijing to sign an agreement with China

Federal deputy José Guimarães (PT) and leader of the PT in the Chamber of Deputies announced, through his profile on X (formerly Twitter), that the vice-president of the Republic Geraldo Alckmin and the minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, go to China to finalize Brazil’s inclusion in the Belt and Road agreement. The officialization will take place at the VII Meeting of COSBAN (Sino-Brazilian High Level Commission for Concertation and Cooperation), which will be held on the 5th and 6th of June.

Members of the Lula government are going to Beijing, the Chinese capital, accompanied by more than 200 businesspeople to formalize Brazil’s entry into the so-called “new Silk Road”. The agreement, launched by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2013, aims to form a global infrastructure network, mainly in the transport sector, to distribute global production. The main means used to connect the continents are highways, railways and ports.

So far, Xi’s initiative, called Belt and Road (belt and road, freely translated from English), has 147 member countries, including Argentina and Chile, neighbors of Brazil.

Despite the sending of government members to China, adherence to the Belt and Road it is not seen as strictly necessary to facilitate the attraction of investment from China. However, as one of the central points of the Lula (PT) government is to attract investments from Brazil’s largest trading partner and the 2nd largest economy in the world, with a focus on the infrastructure, electricity and mobility sectors, joining the Belt and Road can help achieve this goal.

This issue demonstrates the need for a geopolitical balance, since by joining the “new Silk Road”, Brazil can weaken ties with the United States. On the other hand, the Brazilian government can also benefit, in the event of a dispute between the two largest world powers, for investment space in Brazil.