BRICS, planes and beef in spotlight as Brazil's Lula visits Vietnam, sources say
HANOI, March 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit Vietnam next week, bringing with him a business delegation including executives from planemaker Embraer and food giant JBS that are both in talks for possible deals in the Southeast Asian country, sources said.
Lula's second visit to Vietnam as president will take place as Vietnam, under pressure from the Trump administration to reduce its large trade surplus, is pledging to boost imports from the United States, including of farm products such as soybeans of which Brazil is a top exporter to the country.
Lula will travel to Vietnam on March 27-29 after visiting Japan, according to the Brazilian government.
Lula is expected to invite Vietnam to attend a BRICS summit in Brazil in July, a Brazilian official said, noting Vietnam was invited last year to become a BRICS partner but has so far not taken an official position on the matter.
Vietnam's foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment. Brazil's embassy to Vietnam declined to comment.
The two countries are expected to agree on an action plan on defence, agriculture and energy, which could boost cooperation on ethanol, a fuel of which Brazil is a major global producer, the Brazilian official said.
Brazil wants also to increase exports to Vietnam and is asking Hanoi to authorise imports of its beef, the official said confirming earlier reports on Vietnamese state media.
BUSINESS TALKS
The opening of the Vietnamese market for Brazilian beef is a precondition for an investment that Brazil's food giant JBS (JBSS3.SA), opens new tab is considering in Vietnam, three people briefed about the talks, including the Brazilian official, told Reuters.
The company is studying building a meat-processing hub in northern Vietnam, its first plant in Asia, with a possible investment of tens of millions of dollars, the three people said, declining to be named because the information was not public.
JBS declined to comment.
Separately, Embraer (EMBR3.SA), opens new tab is also in talks for the possible sale of ten E190 narrow-body jets to flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, the Brazilian official said.
It is also trying to sell C-390 military transport planes, with a possible showcase flight in Vietnam in May, the official and an industry source said.
Embraer declined to comment. Vietnam Airlines did not reply to a request for comment.
Hanoi is in talks with the U.S. to buy C-130 military transport planes produced by Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab.
Vietnam is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets and local carriers have long been seeking to expand their fleets.
In recent days senior executives from aviation giants Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab and Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab met top Vietnamese officials, according to state media and an internal agenda seen by Reuters. Vietnam is also working on the approval of China's COMAC jets.
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I'm not referring here to our inability to 'learn the lessons', as the stock phrase goes, of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and indeed Gaza. Even such phraseology suggests these are policy mistakes, or unfortunate messes, rather than grave crimes. No, what we need to learn is that the real dangerous extremists in society are those who incite mass violence with catastrophic human consequences, and stop letting them get away with it. Iraq really should have finished off the warmongers, and yet here we are, having to listen to diatribes in support of bombing Iran where the so-called 'case' for dropping bombs on fellow human beings is even weaker. Indeed, the US administration this time is even more extreme and clearly deceitful. Nobody thinks Iran has nuclear weapons. Benjamin Netanyahu has been publicly claiming that the country will imminently develop them for the last three decades. 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We would be forced to listen to the hubris that accompanied intervention in Libya, which became regime change in total defiance of the original mandate, and led to the country becoming a violent failed state. Our media outlets would note that the Israeli prime minister is a wanted man evading justice, subject to an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued by the International Criminal Court, an institution our country is a founding member of. They would note the consensus among genocide scholars – including those in Israel itself – that genocide has been committed in Gaza. The heinous crimes in the illegally occupied and colonised West Bank would be noted, as well as the mass slaughter of civilians in Lebanon. That Israel is invading, occupying and attacking Syria as a matter of course would be noted, alongside statements by Israeli ministers openly calling for the establishment of a "Greater Israel" illegally annexing land which does not belong to it. 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