Lula visits MbS, with ‘strategic partnership’ in the making – 11/26/2023 – Nelson de Sá

According to Saudis like Al Arabiya, Lula’s visit to Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) in Riyadh this beginning of the week should be about investments. The same is planned for Qatar next.

But war is on the agenda, as Arab News indicated when reporting the preparatory conversation between the foreign ministers of Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

In Gulf News, from the Emirates, the Brazilian’s third stop, the Brics summit on the war (above) still echoes. It included not only the current five members, in the case of Lula, but the six countries invited to the bloc, including Mohamed bin Zayed (MbZ), from the Emirates, and MbS — defending a ceasefire and a Palestinian state.

As Arab News and Al Jazeera showed, the greatest rapprochement is happening between Brasília and Riyadh. Last week, the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs was in São Paulo for the International Conference of Muslims in Latin America.

Awaad bin Sabti Al-Anzi then highlighted the kingdom’s “efforts in support of the Palestinian cause”, including organizing summits that “unified Arab and Islamic opinion on brutal and inhumane crimes”.

Qatari Al Jazeera covered the presence in São Paulo of another Saudi minister, of Investment, two months ago. Khalid al-Falih argued that “Brazil and Saudi Arabia are well positioned to be strategic partners”. By aligning geopolitical and private sector interests, “we can become each other’s ‘top five’ investors.”

Regarding the Emirates, the Chinese website East Money and Bloomberg report that Petrobras is negotiating with the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund to repurchase at least part of the Landulpho Alves refinery, in Bahia.

The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times highlight, respectively, “Brazil charts a US$100 billion path to become a global oil power” and “Petrobras seeks to transform Brazil into a global energy power” (above).

The FT, which even visited the floating production unit P-71, highlights in an extensive report that Brazil is “about to join the largest oil producers in the world”, before the end of this decade.

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