Lula to travel to London for coronation of King Charles III
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is scheduled to arrive in London on Friday, May 5, to attend the coronation of King Charles III. The ceremony is set to take place the following day, May 6.
On his first day in London, President Lula will participate in a royal reception at Buckingham Palace along with dozens of other heads of state who will be received by the king. The coronation ceremony is scheduled to be held at Westminster Abbey.
Last March, President Lula and King Charles III talked on the phone, focusing on environmental issues, which have been a historical agenda of the monarch.
As a prince, Charles visited Brazil on four occasions (1978, 1991, 2002, and 2009). In all of them, he went to the Amazon.
Bilateral meeting
Prior to the royal reception, President Lula is scheduled to have a meeting with the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. This will mark their first in-person meeting, as they had only spoken on the phone back in December 2022, before Lula's inauguration.
According to the secretary for Europe and North America at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Maria Luisa Escorel, no agreement is expected to be signed.
She emphasizes that the upcoming bilateral meeting presents a valuable opportunity to further strengthen the relationship between Brazil and the United Kingdom. Over the years, the two nations have established a wide array of agreements and multilateral mechanisms across several sectors, including energy transition, health, defense, and environmental preservation.
The ambassador underscored the significance of the partnership between Brazil and the United Kingdom in important international forums. She pointed out that the UK has been particularly supportive of Brazil's request for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. "The UK consistently places Brazil at the top of its list of priority countries in its foreign policy," she added.
Escorel also disclosed that the British Foreign Secretary is set to visit Brazil on May 23 and 24 for the sixth edition of a high-level dialogue between both foreign affairs ministers aimed at facilitating political consultations. The last such meeting took place in 2017, and it has been since 2014 that a British foreign affairs minister visited Brazil. The upcoming discussions are expected to cover a broad range of topics of mutual interest, including science and technology, climate change, and the expansion of trade between the two nations.
In 2022, bilateral trade between Brazil and the UK reached $6.5 billion dollars, representing a 15 percent increase compared to the previous year. Brazilian exports to the UK accounted for $3.7 billion, which is less than 2 percent of the country's total foreign sales, while imports totaled $2.8 billion. The trade balance remains favorable to Brazil. The areas in which the UK has invested the most in Brazil are mineral extraction, finance, and transport.
