President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday celebrated the launch of Brazil’s third French-designed submarine that will help secure the country’s vast coastline, dubbed the Blue Amazon.
At the ceremony, held at Brazil’s state-of-the-art naval base at Itaguai near Rio de Janeiro, the two men stressed the importance of their countries’ defence partnership at a time of serious global unrest.
It was here that Brazil built the Tonelero, the third of four planned conventional diesel attack submarines, with French training, equipment and technical assistance.
Under overcast skies, the submarine was christened by First Lady Rosangela da Silva, nicknamed “Jania”.
The defence ties between France and Brazil “will allow two important countries on the same continent to prepare so that we can face these adversities without worrying about any type of war, because we are defenders of peace”, Lula said.
Despite disagreements, particularly over the war in Ukraine, Macron said “great peace powers Brazil and France” have “the same vision of peace.”
Macron is making a whirlwind tour of Brazil, his main economic ally, which began on Tuesday with the launch of a plan to attract more than a billion dollars in green investments to protect the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon.
The visit – the first by a French president to Latin America’s economic giant in more than a decade – is also a step toward repairing ties that had significantly deteriorated under former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Macron arrived in the economic capital of Sao Paulo later on Wednesday to introduce his country to Brazilian investors. France is the third-largest investor in Brazil, with more than 40 billion euros in direct investment in the country. The Elysee presidential palace said:
“Brazil is not up to par in terms of investment in France when you see the size and expertise of Brazilian conglomerates.”
Lula will welcome Macron at the presidential palace Planalto in the capital Brasilia on Thursday.
