Nigeria and Brazil have expressed interest in strengthening the already existing bilateral ties to enhance the economic growth of both nations.
This, the two countries said they would achieve by leveraging on areas of comparative advantage
This was disclosed when Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yussuf Tuggar, received in Abuja, the Brazilian delegation led by the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Viera.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yussuf Tuggar, noted that both countries’ partnership dated way back to Nigeria’s independence in 1960, adding that Brazil was the only Latin American country to attend Nigeria’s independence, underscoring the strong historical ties between the two nations.
He stressed that the Brazilian visit is aimed at exploring opportunities for collaboration in areas such as agriculture, energy, and infrastructure development.
“Since our independence, we have engaged with Brazil robustly. 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. It is a continuation of our efforts to strengthen the bond between our two countries. It is important to note that Brazil has this special dialogue mechanism with only three countries and Nigeria is one of those countries. This shows you the importance of the relationship between Nigeria and Brazil. And the mechanism is chaired by the two vice presidents of the countries. And Nigeria is preparing to host. It’s our turn to host. So we are looking forward to welcoming the vice president of Brazil and the Brazilian delegation in the near future for this engagement”.
Ambassador Tuggar added that: “We have several areas of collaboration, such as Agriculture, of course, trade and investment. We have the green imperative within that fold. We have defense cooperation. We have solid minerals that we’re looking at because we both have natural minerals. So we’re looking to create more jobs by learning and leveraging on Brazil’s capacity for metals processing and refining. So this is just a bit of some of the issues that we have been discussing among several others”.
Responding, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mauro Viera, while commending President Tinubu’s participation in the G20 summit in Brazil last November, expressed optimism for productive work to further develop bilateral relations.
The Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister further stressed the importance of strategic dialogue.
“We value a lot the contribution of Nigeria to the G20. 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 in a visit in the near future. And we consider this instance, this moment of consultation between our two ministries very important. It’s a follow-up of the previous engagements we had. We have to work on our mechanism for strategic dialogue and to continue exploring ways to have deeper and closer relations in all areas, such as cultural, economic cooperation and education in all other sectors. And also to make a point about the very close contacts that we have between Brazilians and Nigerians and the presence of Nigerians in the Brazilian society and culture,” he said
During the delegation’s visit, both countries are also expected to sign several agreements aimed at strengthening their bilateral ties in trade, investment and cultural exchange.
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