(Recasts with statement from Xi)
BEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday congratulated Luis Inacio Lula da Silva for his win in Brazil’s presidential election, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“I attach great importance to the development of China-Brazil relations,” said Xi.
“I am willing to work with President-elect Lula, from a strategic and long-term perspective, to jointly plan and promote to a new level the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Brazil, for the benefit of the two countries and its peoples.”
Relations between China and Brazil, two of the world’s largest developing countries, worsened under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who has not conceded the election yet.
Leftist Lula, previously a two-term president, led Brazil into the first BRICS grouping in 2009, initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, before South Africa joined in 2010.
Lula last year praised China and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in an interview with a Chinese media outlet, contrasting the strength of the ruling Communist Party to what he called the “weakening of the state” in Latin American and developing world countries. (Reporting by Martin Pollard; Writing by Eduardo Baptista Editing by Shri Navaratnam, William Maclean and Philippa Fletcher)
