Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is on a four-day visit to China, called on developing countries to find an alternative to the dollar.
"We need a currency that can provide countries with greater stability, because today countries have to chase the dollar in order to be able to export when they can export in their own currency," Lula said in an important financial center in Shanghai, the agency reported. Reuters on its website.
At the start of his visit to China, Lula attended the inauguration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as head of the New Development Bank (NDB) established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known as the BRICS countries.
Lula said the bank, based in Shanghai, has great potential "because it frees emerging countries from subservience to traditional financial institutions, which want to govern them."
He said that the financial needs of developing countries are huge, but the lack of reforms has limited loans from existing banks. The BRICS bank could become "the big bank of the global south," Lula said in a speech.
Brazil's president said the bank could help developing countries become less dependent on the dollar and finance trade in local currencies.
Lula arrived in China on Wednesday and is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing tomorrow before ending his visit on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
The Brazilian government said the two countries are expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements during Lula's visit, underscoring the improvement in relations after a difficult period under former President Jair Bolsonaro.
During the meeting with Xi, Lula is expected to discuss trade, investment, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change and peace accords, the Brazilian government said.
China is Brazil's largest export market, buying tens of billions of dollars worth of soybeans, beef, iron ore, poultry, sugar cane, cotton and crude oil each year.
Brazilian-Chinese trade has grown over the past decade, reaching 150,4 billion dollars last year, and Lula also visited the Chinese company for telecommunications equipment "Huawei", which is otherwise under US sanctions.
A key part of Lula's foreign engagement is his initiative to get Brazil and other developing countries, including China, to broker peace over Ukraine.
However, his proposal that Ukraine give up Crimea, as a concession to achieve peace, caused displeasure in Kiev and its allies.
Bonus video:
