Lula confirms official trip to Germany in December
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday (Jul. 18) met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Brussels during the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the European Union (EU). Scholz extended an invitation to Lula for a high-level intergovernmental consultations meeting in Berlin on December 4, which aligns with Lula's return trip from the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai.
Bilateral meetings
During the summit, Lula also engaged with other European leaders, for instance, Denmark's Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, who expressed her intention to approve a contribution to the Amazon Fund in the Danish budget.
With Sweden's Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, Lula discussed bilateral relations, particularly the partnership in the manufacture of Gripen fighters, used by the Brazilian Air Force. Brazil and Sweden have a contract involving Embraer and SAAB for the production of 36 Gripen aircraft, with technology transfer to Brazil. The Swedish prime minister extended an invitation to the Brazilian president to visit Sweden, and in return, Lula invited Kristersson to visit Brazil with a trade mission next year.
In May, Lula attended the inauguration of the Gripen aircraft production line at Embraer's Gavião Peixoto factory in São Paulo. Saab's contract with FAB includes delivering 36 Gripen aircraft by 2027 and transferring technology to Brazil.
Of the total, 13 fighters will be manufactured in Sweden, eight will start production there and be completed in Brazil, and 15 will be entirely manufactured at Embraer's unit by Brazilian engineers and technicians trained at Saab's headquarters in Linköping.
Currently, four aircraft are operational at the Anápolis Air Base in Goiás state and two others have recently arrived. This program is part of Brazil's efforts to renew its Armed Forces infrastructure, including the nuclear submarine project and the Guarani armored vehicle project.
