Brazil, UAE strike climate, biofuels deals as leaders meet

Brazil and the United Arab Emirates [UAE]  have announced a series of deals on combating the climate crisis and advancing biofuels as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva paid an official visit to the oil-rich country.

"It was a highly fruitful visit," Lula said in brief comments to Brazil's TV Globo on Saturday after meeting UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on his way home from a trip to China.

The countries said in a joint statement the leaders had discussed a range of subjects including trade, technology, defense, aviation and food security.

They also announced a series of deals, including one for the UAE-controlled Mataripe refinery in northeastern Brazil to invest up to $2.5 billion in a biodiesel project in the region, and another on cooperating against the climate crisis.

The UAE is due to host the COP28 UN climate talks later this year, and Brazil is a candidate to host the 2025 edition.

The countries said they had agreed to work together to "encourage ambitious climate action" from the rest of the world.

Lula, who returned to power in January after two terms as president between 2003 and 2010, was played the Brazilian national anthem and inspected an honour guard.

The strategically located Gulf country is Brazil's second-largest trading partner in the Middle East, according to the official WAM news agency.

Bilateral trade excluding oil products totalled more than four million dollars last year, representing a 32-percent rise from 2021, WAM said.

READ MORE: Brazil's Lula begins China trip, aims to strengthen relations

Lula criticises US, IMF in China

In Beijing, where Lula sought to consolidate economic ties with Brazil's main trading partner, he said his country was "back on the international stage" and ready to mediate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Lula also accused the United States of "encouraging" the war and said it should "start talking about peace".

He also criticised the outsize role of the US dollar in world economy and lashed out at the International Monetary Fund [IMF].

"No bank should be asphyxiating countries' economies the way the IMF is doing now with Argentina, or the way they did with Brazil for a long time and every third-world country," he said on Thursday. 

Both China and Brazil have refused to join Western nations in imposing sanctions on Moscow for its offensive, and there are concerns in the West that both potential mediators are overly cosy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The UAE has maintained a neutral stance in the conflict.

Its financial hub Dubai has attracted Russian professionals and businesspeople fleeing the impact of Western sanctions since the invasion in February 2022.

READ MORE: 'Who decided dollar would be currency?': Lula slams US dollar in China tour