DAMASCUS, 4 December 2003 — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday at the start of a regional tour aimed at bolstering trade and his country’s campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
The talks are believed to have covered the situation in Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict and bilateral relations.
The official Syrian news agency SANA gave no details of the meeting, which was attended by Syrian Prime Minister Naji Al-Otari, Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa and Brazilian Cabinet ministers.
Afterward, ministers from both countries signed cooperation agreements in the fields of sports, culture, tourism, education and health, SANA reported. The two presidents witnessed the signing ceremony. Lula and Assad were present as the two sides signed agreements.
Lula arrived in Damascus yesterday accompanied by his wife and some 120 aides, Cabinet ministers, congressmen and business executives. The former trade union leader was welcomed in an official reception ceremony by 21 cannon shots fired in his honor.
Lula’s two-day visit to Syria is the first by a Brazilian president in more than a century. He was expected to address the closing session of a seminar of Brazilian and Syrian businessmen later yesterday.
Syrian Economy Minister Ghassan Rifai has told the Syrian press the visit has “special importance due to the presence of a large Syrian community in Brazil.”
Syria’s trade balance with Brazil shows a deficit of about 3.5 billion Syrian pounds ($70 million) in favor of Brazil. But Syrian exports to Brazil — mainly oil, cumin, anise and sesame — have increased more than six fold in the past eight years to reach 312 million pounds ($6.2 million) in 2002.
Syria imports mainly coffee, sugar, printing paper and iron bars from Brazil. The Brazilian leader’s eight-day tour of the region is part of an intensive campaign to encourage exports to developing nations and to boost the stagnating Brazilian economy. He is scheduled to go on to Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Libya.
Shortly after his arrival in Beirut Lula is scheduled to meet at his hotel with Lebanese House speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He will then head to the presidential palace where he will hold talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. On the second day of his visit, he will meet with Lebanese financial officials, businessmen and members of the Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, before departing around noon on Saturday.
“Our talks with the Brazilian president will focus on ways to boost trade between the two countries,” Fadi Aboud, head of the Lebanese Industrialists said.
Brazilian Foreign Ministry officials say Lula will seek to build Arab support for Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. He is also expected to propose a summit of Middle East and Latin American leaders to boost trade between the regions.
In an interview with an Egyptian newspaper before leaving for the Middle East trip, Lula said that he wanted to implement hundreds of dormant cooperation accords with Arab countries.
“We want to know all the kinds of cooperation that we can have in the areas of agriculture, oil, culture, education and health ... but all that is only feasible if one has a better understanding of the other,” Lula told Al-Ahram Hebdo.
