Brazil backs away from joining China’s belt and road but keeps funding door ajar
Beijing had hoped to make the initiative’s expansion a centrepiece of Xi Jinping’s visit to the country next month
Celso Amorim, special presidential adviser for international affairs, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that Brazil wants to “take the relationship with China to a new level, without having to sign an accession contract”.
“We are not entering into a treaty,” Amorim said, explaining that Brazil does not want to take Chinese infrastructure and trade projects as “an insurance policy”.
According to Amorim, the aim is to use some of the belt and road framework to find “synergy” between Brazilian infrastructure projects and the investment funds associated with the initiative, without necessarily formally joining the group.
The Chinese “call it the belt [and road] … and they can give whatever names they want, but what matters is that there are projects that Brazil has defined as a priority and that may or may not be accepted [by Beijing]”, Amorim said.
China had hoped to make Brazil’s joining of the initiative a centrepiece of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Brasilia on November 20, but officials from Brazil’s economy and foreign affairs ministries recently voiced opposition to the idea.
