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Brazil: Lula postpones his visit to China indefinitely due to pneumonia

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, was forced on Saturday due to pneumonia to postpone his state visit to China indefinitely, where he was to discuss the conflict in Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The Brazilian president “has decided to postpone his trip to China. This postponement has been communicated to the Chinese authorities”, indicated in a press release the secretariat of the communication of the presidency, without providing a new date of trip.

Lula was originally scheduled to travel to China on Saturday, but due to “mild pneumonia” the trip, which involves around 20 hours by plane, was postponed for a day on Friday.

“Despite the clinical improvement, the medical service of the Presidency of the Republic recommends postponing the trip to China until the end of the cycle of viral transmission”, specifies Dr Ana Helena Germoglio in the press release from the presidency.

It was high blood pressure that prompted Lula to undergo medical examinations Thursday evening on his return to Brasilia, according to the daily Folha de S. Paulo, after a trying day in Rio de Janeiro where he had notably visited the shipyard of the Scorpène submarines manufactured in partnership with the French group Naval Group.

The entire presidential week was very busy with visits by the Brazilian leader to four states in the immense Brazil.

On Friday, he stayed at his official residence in Alvorada, Brasilia, where he met ministers and elected officials.

-significant delegation-

The icon of the left was to go to Beijing, at the head of a large delegation of six ministers, governors, deputies, senators and around 200 business leaders.

China is Brazil’s largest trading partner: bilateral trade reached $150 billion last year.

His official agenda was to begin on Tuesday with an interview with Xi Jinping, with whom he was to address the conflict in Ukraine and present a proposal, with still vague outlines, of mediation by a group of neutral countries.

The Chinese president has already told Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit this week to Moscow, of a 12-point peace plan, which includes respect for the territorial sovereignty of all countries.

During his first two terms (2003-2010), Lula traveled to Beijing three times. This new visit, less than three months after his return to power, was to testify to his concern to reconnect with multilateralism, after the mandate of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro marked by great isolation.

Anxious to “talk to everyone”, the Brazilian president visited Argentina in January and the United States in February.

At the end of November, shortly after his victory against Jair Bolsonaro after a very tense and exhausting campaign, he underwent larynx surgery. A laryngoscopy then ruled out the presence of a new tumor in the former turner-miller, who had suffered from laryngeal cancer in 2011. He was declared in remission the following year, after undergoing radiotherapy sessions and chemotherapy.

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