Brazilian President invites Tinubu to deepen bilateral ties

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has extended an invitation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of efforts to enhance diplomatic and economic ties between both nations.  

Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mauro Viera, announced this during a meeting with Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, in Abuja.

Viera, who led a delegation from Brazil, is engaging in high-level discussions with Nigerian officials.

The visit is expected to culminate in the signing of agreements aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries in areas such as trade, investment, and diplomacy.

The minister, who praised President Tinubu’s participation in the G-20 summit in Brazil last November, emphasised the importance of strategic dialogue and exploring deeper relations in various areas, including culture, economics, cooperation and education.

He said: “It’s a pleasure to visit Nigeria. We are very pleased that President Tinubu went to Brazil for the G-20 summit in November. We value a lot the contributions of Nigeria to the G-20 and we hope that President Tinubu will be able to come back to Brazil in the near future.

“We consider this instance, this moment of consultations between our two ministries, very important. It’s a follow-up to the previous engagements we had.

‘’ As I mentioned, since the beginning of this mandate, this term in office of President Lula, which took place in early January 2023. We will continue to prepare for the coming events that we have.

‘’ We have to work on our mechanism for strategic dialogue and to continue exploring ways to have deeper and closer, even deeper and even closer relations in all areas.’’

Ambassador Tuggar noted that Brazil was the only Latin American country to attend Nigeria’s independence celebration, underscoring the strong historical ties between the two nations.

He said: “We share a lot in common, from our size and economies to our population and culture. This visit is a natural progression of our partnership.’’