The diplomatic crisis between Brazil and the government of Israel took over Brazilian news upon President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's return from a six-day trip to Africa. Despite this, the trip had a very positive outcome, in the opinion of professor Kauê Lopes dos Santos, from the Unicamp Geosciences Institute. The teacher is a guest on the program Analyze, to discuss Brazil's rapprochement with countries on the African continent, especially the new Brics members, Egypt and Ethiopia.
“It was a strategic trip for the Brazilian government, with the aim of intensifying relations with other territories on the African continent”, says the professor. According to him, Egypt and Ethiopia, as new members of BRICS, play an important role in the Global South agenda and represent gateways to the Arab world and India. “These are very populous countries and large economies within the continent, with potential yet to be explored”, he highlights.
Lopes dos Santos commented on the expression that Africa “is the last frontier of capitalism”, highlighting that, although the diversity of the 54 African countries may even represent an object of dispute for the extra-continental world, these countries will deal with external forces in different ways.
For the professor, the rapprochement with African countries is a hallmark of the Lula governments. “In the past, Egypt has already opened up to our meat market, and there are also cooperative relations with Embrapa with several partnerships in West Africa, in cotton production, and with Fiocruz, in the development of treatments for tropical diseases”, details.
The professor also states that, in the last 20 years, there has been a significant transformation in the way African economies have been organized. According to him, there was an increase in investment in commodities such as agricultural and mineral products, at the same time that African leaders began to invest in infrastructure and economic diversification, reducing the countries' economic vulnerability.
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Data sheet:
Production: Patrícia Lauretti and Ronei Thezolin
Presentation: Patrícia Lauretti
Images: Marcos Botelho Jr.
Image direction: João Ricardo - Boi
Cover: Alex Calixto
