The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva proposed this Wednesday to his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to build a “strategic alliance” between the two countries to grow their economies and promote the integration of South America to have greater weight in the face of large nations.
“We need to build a strategic alliance between Brazil and Colombia. Our foreign ministers and our bureaucracy have to sit at the table to identify all the obstacles that hinder our negotiations,” said the Brazilian head of state at a forum of businessmen from the two countries in Bogotá. in which he was accompanied by Petro.
Lula stressed that he hopes the two countries will be the same, in terms of the economy, when Petro and he finish their terms and that this will only be achieved by promoting the union between the nations of the continent and their economies.
He also said that “the stronger we are, the more the United States will respect us, the more the European Union, China, Russia and India will respect us.”
He explained that Brazilian businessmen look to Colombia for their investments to be safe, for which they ask for legal, fiscal and social stability.
Furthermore, the head of state advocated ending the obstacles that exist in the two countries to make the trade balance increase significantly, since both Brazil and Colombia have economic and human resources to make this possible.
Brazil is today Colombia’s third largest trading partner, behind United States and China, Therefore, the two governments intend to expand this exchange.
According to official data, in 2023 bilateral trade totaled 6.1 billion dollars, with the balance tilted in favor of Brazil, which exported products worth 3.8 billion dollars.