BEIJING: In a major setback to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Brazil has decided against joining Beijing’s multi-billion-dollar initiative becoming the second country after India in the Brics bloc not to endorse the mega project.
Brazil, headed by President Lula da Silva, will instead seek alternative ways to collaborate with Chinese investors, Celso Amorim, special presidential adviser for international affairs, said on Monday.
Brazil wants to “take the relationship with China to a new level, without having to sign an accession contract”, he told newspaper O Globo. “We are not entering into a treaty,” he said, explaining that Brazil doesn’t want to take Chinese infrastructure and trade projects as “an insurance policy”.
According to Amorim, the aim is to use some of the Belt and Road framework to find “synergy” between Brazilian infrastructure projects and the investment funds associated with the initiative, without necessarily formally joining the group, South China Morning Post quoted him as saying.
The Chinese “call it the belt (and road) … and they can give whatever names they want, but what matters is that there are projects that Brazil has defined as a priority and that may or may not be accepted (by Beijing)”, Amorim said.
The decision contradicts China’s plans to make Brazil’s joining of the initiative a centrepiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Brasilia on Nov 20, the Post reported. Officials from Brazil’s economy and foreign affairs ministries recently voiced opposition to the idea, it said.
The prevailing opinion in Brazil was that joining China’s flagship project would not only fail to bring tangible benefits in the short term but could also make relations with a potential Trump administration more difficult.
Last week, Amorim and president’s chief of staff Rui Costa travelled to Beijing to discuss the initiative. Sources said they returned “unconvinced and unimpressed” by China’s offers, the Post reported.
India was the first country to voice reservations and stood steadfast in its opposition to BRI, a pet project of Xi to further the global influence of China with investments to build infrastructure projects. India has protested against China building the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, stated to be the flagship project of BRI through POK in violation of its sovereignty.