Wen's Brazil visit conducive to closer ties

The upcoming visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Brazil will lead to a closer partnership between the two countries, said Clodoaldo Hugueney, Brazil's ambassador to China.

"We have made really remarkable achievements in the political sphere through frequent top-level visits," he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily. He added that top leaders of the two countries exchanged visits in the past three years.

"We have long expected Premier Wen to visit Brazil, his visit reflects a close high-level political relationship and would maintain the political dialogue on global issues on a high level," he said.

Hugueney said the visit is expected to yield concrete results as the two emerging economies have intensified their cooperation in trade and technology.

"We are still finalizing deals in a bid to extend cooperation in space industry, infrastructure construction, energy and other fields. The broad range reflects the nature of our cooperation," he said.

He added that Marco Maia, president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, visited earlier this month the Beijing Aerospace Control Center and some other high-tech projects in China, areas where the two countries could further cooperate.

"Brazil and China are expected to sign an agreement on developing a new generation of satellites during Wen's visit to Brazil," he said.

Agriculture is also a very important sector and one where the two countries could expand bilateral trade volume, he said, adding that Brazil's agricultural products are very competitive.

"We want to be a long-term supplier of meat and sausages to China, since Brazil is the largest meat exporter in the world," Hugueney said.

Brazil, one of the BRICS nations - which also include Russia, India, China and South Africa - has emerged as the closest country to China economically within the bloc.

Bilateral trade between China and Brazil has been growing 35 percent on an annual basis and reached $84 billion last year, China's Ministry of Commerce figures showed. China is Brazil's largest trade partner since 2009 due to huge exports in the energy and agricultural sectors. China is also the largest foreign investor in Brazil.

South America and Caribbean countries "very much welcome" China's economic presence in the region, he said.

"There are great complementarities within our economies, because our natural resources can attract large Chinese investments, and we also need Chinese commodities," he said.