President Lula invites Tinubu to Brazil, seeks stronger bilateral ties

In a bid to strengthen diplomatic relations between Brazil and Nigeria, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has extended an invitation to President Bola Tinubu to visit his country.

Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mauro Vieira, disclosed this during a meeting in Abuja with his Nigerian counterpart, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, on Wednesday.

Leading a delegation from the Latin American nation, Vieira is set to engage in high-level talks with Nigerian officials to bolster cooperation between both nations.

The discussions are expected to culminate in the signing of agreements aimed at deepening bilateral ties, covering areas such as culture, economics, education, and strategic cooperation.

Commending Tinubu’s participation in the G-20 summit held in Brazil last November, Vieira emphasized the importance of fostering a strategic dialogue to enhance mutual interests and expand relations between both countries.

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 explained 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.’’