Brazilian president invites Tinubu to strengthen Nigeria-Brazil relations

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has officially invited President Bola Tinubu to visit Brazil, signaling a move to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between both nations.

The invitation was delivered by Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mauro Viera, during a meeting with Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The visit, once finalized, is expected to focus on key areas such as trade, investment, and cultural cooperation, fostering deeper collaboration between Nigeria and Brazil.

Viera, who led a team from the Latin American nation to Nigeria is expected to engage in high-level talks with Nigerian officials.

The two countries are expected to sign some agreements aimed at strengthening their bilateral ties.

The minister, who praised President Tinubu’s participation in the G-20 summit in Brazil last November, emphasised the importance of strategic dialogue and exploring deeper relations in various areas, including culture, economics, cooperation and education.

He said:

“It’s a pleasure to visit Nigeria. We are very pleased that President Tinubu went to Brazil for the G-20 summit in November. We value a lot the contributions of Nigeria to the G-20 and we hope that President Tinubu will be able to come back to Brazil in the near future.

‘’I take also this opportunity to express the desire of President Lula to receive President Tinubu in Brazil shortly.

“We consider this instance, this moment of consultations between our two ministries, very important. It’s a follow-up to the previous engagements we had.

“As I mentioned, since the beginning of this mandate, this term in office of President Lula, which took place in early January 2023. We will continue to prepare for the coming events that we have.

“We have to work on our mechanism for strategic dialogue and to continue exploring ways to have deeper and closer, even deeper and even closer relations in all areas.”

Ambassador Tuggar noted that Brazil was the only Latin American country to attend Nigeria’s independence celebration, underscoring the strong historical ties between the two nations.

He said:

“We share a lot in common, from our size and economies to our population and culture. This visit is a natural progression of our partnership.’’