BRASILIA (Reuters) – China and Brazil bolstered their growing ties with trade and investment agreements yestersday before a summit of the world’s top four emerging markets that was cut back after China’s leader decided to return home to deal with a major earthquake.
President Hu Jintao cancelled visits to Venezuela and Chile because of the quake that killed more than 600 people, and his early return forced the so-called BRIC summit with Brazil, Russia and India to move forward by a day to yesterday evening.
The increasingly influential countries, which account for about 40 percent of the world’s population, are expected to use their second leaders’ summit to push demands that developing countries be given more say in global financial institutions.
Hu oversaw the signing of deals with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aimed at boosting trade and energy cooperation between the two emerging giants, which have grown closer in recent years amid a surge in trade flows.
Lula said a Chinese pledge to build a steel plant at a Brazilian port was also likely and that it would be China’s biggest investment ever in Latin America’s largest economy.
The leaders gave no details, but Brazilian media reported that China’s Wuhan Iron and Steel will build a plant in a port in Rio de Janeiro state with Brazilian logistics firm LLX Logistica, controlled by billionaire Eike Batista.
Lula also said China had expressed interest in bidding to construct a high-speed train line that is planned to connect Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
“The possibility for Chinese companies to participate in the modernization of Brazil’s infrastructure is exceptional,” Lula said, citing Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
China’s Sinopec and the country’s development bank signed a strategic development agreement with Brazil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras, Sinopec Chairman Su Shulin told Reuters.
Su said the deal will cover the development of Brazilian oil resources and trade with China.
Brazil’s recent discovery of vast offshore oil reserves has opened a new area of potential cooperation with resource-hungry China, which last year agreed to lend $10 billion to Petrobras in return for guaranteed oil supply over the next decade.
Brazil and China also agreed to boost Brazilian beef and tobacco exports to the Asian country, and to move forward with cooperation on satellite launches.
Hu said after meeting Lula that both countries were willing to increase cooperation on international affairs and to push for reform of the global financial system. The two leaders also discussed Iran, but Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim denied reports that Lula asked Hu to delay a United Nations Security Council vote on new sanctions against the country until after Lula visits Tehran next month.
Lula has opposed fresh sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that negotiations have not been exhausted.
