President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says Brazil wants to restore the “good and fruitful” relations it had with Africa during his first term in office, which began in 2003.
According to Reuters, Lula, as he is popularly known, said he intended to visit “several” African countries this year and spoke of Brazil’s “potential to help Africa.”
He was speaking on Wednesday during a visit to Cabo Verde, where he met President José Maria Neves. The Brazilian leader said afterward that he wanted to “see how Brazil can advance in helping the African continent.”
[See more: China donates rice to Cabo Verde, where more than a quarter of the population faces hunger]
Lula made a stopover in Portuguese-speaking Cabo Verde after participating in the third summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean states (CELAC) in Brussels.
The remarks are some of the first he has made on Africa during his third term.
Much of the diplomatic effort of his current administration has so far been made in fostering closer ties with Brazil’s largest trading partner, China.
