Doubling trade and closer cooperation in armaments and raw materials: Germany and Brazil want to further deepen their partnership. “The closeness between our two countries is more necessary than ever at a time when the world order is changing so fundamentally,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) at a joint press conference with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after the German-Brazilian government consultations in Hanover. “We want to strengthen mutual benefit and we want to be a network of strong and like-minded partners.”
Lula and Merz campaigned together for reform of the United Nations. Both countries have long claimed permanent seats on the UN Security Council, in which only five nuclear powers are currently permanently represented and have veto rights: the USA, China, Russia, Great Britain and France. Partly because of the veto right, all reform efforts in the past decades have failed.
Lula continues attacks against Trump
The Brazilian president continued his attacks against US President Donald Trump at the meeting. The day before, he had described the Iran war started by the USA and Israel as “madness”. Now he sharply criticized Trump’s decision to exclude South Africa from the next G20 summit in Florida.
Lula said he had advised South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to come to the meeting anyway. “If you throw out South Africa today, Germany will be thrown out tomorrow, Brazil will be thrown out.” He called on the German government to join him in urging South Africa to participate.
Trump had announced that he would not invite South Africa to the G20 summit in December in one of his hotels – the “Trump National Doral Miami”. The Republican accused South Africa of committing genocide against white farmers. Experts and the South African government strongly disagree with the portrayal of an alleged genocide.
EU-Mercosur agreement aims to boost trade
Merz and his wife Charlotte had already welcomed Lula and his wife Janja at Herrenhausen Castle on Sunday and then opened the Hanover Trade Fair together. The German-Brazilian government consultations followed today with a total of 15 ministers on both sides.
The focus was on economic cooperation. The provisional entry into force of the free trade agreement between the EU and the four Mercosur states Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on May 1st offers the best conditions for this. Merz now hopes to be able to double the trade volume with Brazil “in the next few years”.
“We want to develop the strengths of our economies together, as important trading partners,” said Merz. He also advocated a joint reduction in economic dependencies. “This is the need of the hour in a world that has become unpredictable. We are deepening our cooperation in the area of critical raw materials,” he said. Brazil is particularly attractive to Germany as a supplier of rare earths, which are used for laptops, cell phones and electric motors.
Lula interested in more frigates
Germany and Brazil also want to cooperate more closely in the armaments sector. Lula is interested in four more Tamandaré frigates from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. Four such frigates are currently under construction in Brazil. “Today we are making progress in efforts to acquire four additional units,” Lula said. There are also discussions about armored vehicles, air defense and drones. During the visit there was also something to straighten out the atmosphere. The Chancellor’s first visit to Brazil caused temporary unrest. After returning from the World Climate Conference in the Amazon metropolis of Belém, he spoke about the very poor city in a way that many Brazilians found offensive and derogatory. Lula also initially criticized him for this, but then reconciled with him at the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
Lula wanted sausage from the snack bar
Perhaps as compensation, Merz tried to fulfill a wish in Hanover that he had expressed in a “Spiegel” interview before his departure: “I told him that when I travel to Germany, I like to eat sausage from the street snack bar.”
Merz had “a selection of sausage specialties” served to him before the festive lunch at Herrenhausen Castle. But Lula wasn’t really happy about it. He wanted a sausage from the snack bar and not from the castle chef. “The only thing I regret is that I didn’t pass a street where there was a food truck that was selling bratwurst or bratwurst in the truck,” he said.
