Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will begin his tour of Brazil and Chile tomorrow, where he will renew the strategic partnership with both countries, sign almost a dozen memoranda of understanding and address the reinforcement of economic and business relations.
As The Diplomat had anticipated and sources from Moncloa specified yesterday, Sánchez will thus return the visits that the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and of Chile, Gabriel Boric, made to our country last year, during which he stood highlights the harmony that the Chief Executive maintains with them.
The President of the Government will travel accompanied by the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, and by a group of businessmen with interests in both countries, from sectors as varied as infrastructure, urban mobility, telecommunications, air transport, railways, ports, renewable energies, water and sanitation and agriculture.
Brazil
The official agenda of the tour will begin on Wednesday in Brazil, which will be Sánchez’s first trip to this country since his arrival in office in 2018 and the first visit by a president of the Spanish Government since 2017. The first day, which will take place in Brasilia, it will begin with an interview by Pedro Sánchez with the GloboNews news channel and will continue with a working breakfast with Spanish businessmen to learn about their concerns, interests and opportunities.
Subsequently, Pedro Sánchez will be received at the presidential headquarters of the Planalto Palace by Lula, with whom he will first hold a bilateral meeting that will be followed by a second expanded meeting between the two delegations and a joint press conference between the two leaders. During these meetings, according to the aforementioned sources, the two leaders will address the institutionalization of political relations through the creation of a binational permanent commission and the signing of a joint Declaration of follow-up of the Renewed Strategic Association between Spain and Brazil, which will include a roadmap on different areas of cooperation (political, economic, cultural or scientific) and a calendar of meetings of different working groups.
Additionally, during the meeting with Lula, four memoranda of understanding will be signed on science, technology and innovation, health investments and public administration. Strategic relations between the EU and Latin America will also be addressed through Brazil, a leading country in the region and current president of the G20.
Wednesday’s day will include a lunch offered by Lula to the Spanish delegation, including businessmen, and will continue with a visit to the Brazilian National Congress, where Sánchez will meet with the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; and with another visit to the Museum in Memory of Indigenous Peoples.
The other main objective of the trip to Brazil will be to promote trade and investment relations. Brazil is currently the second destination for Spanish exports in Latin America and Spain is the second largest investor in the world, only behind the United States, with a gross investment stock of more than 26,350 million euros in 2021. During his visit to Spain to At the end of April 2023, Lula met with directors of large Spanish companies to encourage them to invest more in their country.
For this reason, economic issues will preside over Pedro Sánchez’s second day in Brazil, which will take place on Thursday in Sao Paulo. In this city, the country’s great business center, a large business forum will be held in which more than 200 companies have already confirmed their participation (of the almost 300 Spanish companies in Brazil, mostly SMEs) and in the that Pedro Sánchez will say a few words. There will also be a representative from the European Commission to address the Global Gateway Investment Agenda. In Brazil there are five projects financed by this EU global investment and cooperation platform, promoted during the recent Spanish Presidency of the EU.
Subsequently, Pedro Sánchez will visit the works of the Sao Paulo Metro, a large infrastructure project awarded to the Spanish company Acciona, and will travel to the Instituto Cervantes center in Sao Paulo. Brazil is the country in the world with the most Cervantes centers, specifically eight. During this visit he will meet with an association of Spanish scientists.
Chile
Once the visit to Brazil is concluded, the Spanish delegation will travel to Santiago de Chile, where the agenda will be fully developed on Friday, March 8. This is the first visit by a President of the Spanish Government to this country since the arrival of Gabriel Boric to the Presidency of the Republic. The President of the Government already visited Chile in 2018, during the mandate of the recently deceased Sebastián Piñera, and the visit will be a return of the one Boric made to Spain in July of last year.
Pedro Sánchez will be received by Gabriel Boric at the presidential headquarters of the Palacio de La Moneda, first in a bilateral format and then in a broad format, with the two delegations. During this meeting, the two leaders will sign the Renewed Strategic Alliance, which updates and expands the 2013 one, since, to the collaboration in entrepreneurship, investments and innovation that appeared in it, other new priorities will be added, such as sustainability, equality gender and feminist diplomacy and security and the fight against crime.
Additionally, during this visit four memoranda of understanding on just ecological transition, democratic memory, cooperation in the Antarctic and technological innovation will be signed and the two presidents will offer a joint press conference. The visit will also serve to address the economic relationship and will include a business meeting between Spain and Chile, a country in which Spanish investment is relevant, but registers a certain stagnation.
The aforementioned sources have also highlighted the coincidence of Pedro Sánchez’s visit with the celebration of International Women’s Day, which will result in the signing of a joint declaration to work internationally for gender equality and the participation of President of the Government in an institutional act of the Boric Executive on the occasion of March 8. Separately, Sánchez will visit La Pintana, a vulnerable neighborhood in Greater Santiago, where he will talk with local leaders and activists for women’s rights.
