Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the first foreign head of state to visit Vietnam in 2025. This is also the second time President Lula da Silva has visited Vietnam as head of Brazil, after the first time in 2008.
According to VNA, attending the welcoming ceremony for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son; Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Le Minh Hoan; Director of the Office of the President Le Khanh Hai; Minister of Agriculture and Environment Do Duc Duy; Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien; Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son; Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh;
Deputy Minister of National Defense Pham Hoai Nam; Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy; Deputy Minister of Public Security Le Van Tuyen; Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet; Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Xuan Sang; Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Quoc Phuong; Assistant to President Tong Thanh Tri; Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil Bui Van Nghi.
After listening to the national anthems of the two countries, President Luong Cuong and President Lula da Silva left the podium, bowed to the Military Flag and approved the Honor Guard of the Vietnam People's Army. Next, the two leaders introduced the members of the high-ranking delegations of the two countries attending the welcoming ceremony.
President Lula da Silva's visit to Vietnam this time is a new milestone of extremely important significance in the relationship between the two countries, in line with Vietnam's foreign policy, contributing to concretizing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the project "Developing relations between Vietnam and Latin American countries for the period 2022-2026", promoting the implementation of international commitments and concretizing new cooperation frameworks, while affirming Vietnam's determination to strengthen cooperation with important partners in the Latin American region, especially Brazil.
The visit took place in the context that the Vietnam - Brazil relationship has been upgraded to a Strategic Partnership on the occasion of Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attending the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro city in November 2024.
After the welcoming ceremony, President Luong Cuong and the President of Brazil held talks.
In terms of economic and trade cooperation, Brazil is currently Vietnam's largest trading partner in Latin America, while Vietnam is also an important partner of Brazil in Southeast Asia.
In recent years, bilateral trade relations between Vietnam and Brazil have increased rapidly, from 1.53 billion USD in 2011 to 7.98 billion USD in 2024 and the two countries are striving to increase bilateral turnover to 10 billion USD in 2025 and 15 billion USD in 2030.
In addition, the two sides have the potential to strengthen cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy, science - technology, security - defense, environmental protection and climate change response. Vietnam also hopes to soon start FTA negotiations with MERCOSUR, of which Brazil is a member.
