Recent Brazilian engagements with African nations

Brazil– Libya relations

Libya was an important player in Brazil’s strategy to strengthen relations with the African continent. Libya participated actively in two foreign policy initiatives supported by President Lula to strengthen Brazilian relations with the global South: the Africa-South America Summit (in 2006 and 2009) and the South American-Arab States Summit (2005, 2009)¹³¹. In terms of economic relations, Brazilian construction companies benefited from the end of the international embargo against Libya in 2003 and began operating in the country. The Brazilian state oil company Petrobrás also began exploring oil in 2005. From 2003 to 2009, Brazilian exports to Libya grew 289% and Libya’s exports to Brazil grew 3111%.¹³²

As for the Arab Spring events in Libya, in the beginning of March 2011, former President Lula and the Brazilian government rejected calls from the Libyan government to act as mediators between the rebels and the Libyan authorities. Brazil resisted recognizing the National Transitional Council as Libya’s government and it was only in the end of July 2011 that the Brazilian government sent a senior diplomat to Benghazi to establish informal talks with the rebel government. Brazil found itself in a situation similar to that of other BRICS such as Russia and China, whose companies also had contracts with the government that were threatened to be cancelled by the rebels because these countries were opposing NATO bombings and further Security Council against Libya.

It was only on September 16^th 2011 that the Brazilian government recognized the new Libyan government after voting in favor of its participation in the UN General Assembly meeting.¹³³

At the time of the NATO bombings, there were between 500 and 600 Brazilians living in Libya¹³⁴ and between 2008 and 2010, Libya had become the seventh major destination for Brazilian exports to Africa¹³⁵. In addition to commercial interests there are also normative concerns on the part of Brazil regarding the authorization of enforcement action by the Council, especially about the concern that the mandate of UN Security Council resolution 1973 was interpreted as to legitimate a regime change strategy in addition to a civilian protection mandate.

In July 2012, almost more than a year after closing its embassy in Tripoli, Brazil informed that it was sending a new ambassador to Libya. The Brazilian press informed that at the time, there were contracts with Brazilian companies valued at 6 billion US dollars still under consideration by the new Libyan authorities. The new Brazilian ambassador expressed its desire to bring the Brazilian national soccer team to play in Libya in order to improve Brazil’s image in the country¹³⁶.

Brazil-Mozambique relations

Mozambique has become the largest African recipient of Brazilian development cooperation since 2003. The country was included in a group of 5 African nations that were visited by President Lula da Silva in his first state visit to Africa¹³⁷. Brazilian cooperation with Mozambique however, predates the Lula administration, and a cooperation agreement had already been signed in 1981, shortly after the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975. In a presidential visit in 2000, President Cardoso had already cancelled 95% of Mozambique’s public debt with Brazil and signed several cooperation agreements (Almeida & Kraychete, 2012, 9). During the first visit by President Lula in November 2003, Mozambique expressed its support for a permanent seat for Brazil in the United Nations Security Council (Almeida & Kraychete, 2012, 10).

As of 2012, Mozambique concentrates the largest number of projects both by EMBRAPA and ABC in Africa, with a total of 32 projects coordinated by the ABC, of which 5 include the participation of EMBRAPA ( Lima, 2012, p .). Projects in Mozambique correspond to 15,6% of all projects run by the ABC in Africa, and 22,7% of EMBRAPA projects in Africa( Lima, 2012, p 26). In addition, Brazilian technical cooperation in Mozambique includes areas as diverse as the training of Mozambican Armed Forces officials and the creation of a National Archives System (Lima, 2012, p. 23).

In 2011, the Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports (APEX – Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações) had already identified potential areas for Brazilian companies to export to Mozambique, highlighting agribusiness, civil construction and the sale of machinery and equipment (Almeida & Kraychete, 2012, p. 17). The 3 largest Brazilian civil construction companies have projects in Mozambique, including strategic projects such as the transformation of the Nacala Air Force Base in an international airport, the construction of a highway that will connect Mozambique and Tanzania and infra-structure projects in the Moatize coal mine, including the recovery of railway lines, the enlargement of the Beira Port and the construction of a thermo electrical power plant (Almeida & Kraychete, 2012, p. 17).

The connection between the agenda of promoting technical and development cooperation and the promotion of economic relations is also evident in the case of the Brazilian involvement in Mozambique. As Almeida and Kraychete point out, this complex and interconnected relation becomes even more evident when Brazilian companies operating in Mozambique provide donations to the Brazilian technical cooperation projects in the country in order to compensate for the impact of their presence, particularly accentuated in the case of the coal extraction in Moatize by the mining company Vale do Rio Doce (Vale Moçambique) in which families who lived in the area had to be resettled ( Almeida & Kraychete, 2012, 18-19).

Brazilian corporations have sought to balance the possible negative impacts of their presence in Mozambique by also contributing to local community development. According to Besharati, Vale is cooperating with USAID on a night clinic and HIV counseling project and has rehabilitated two health clinics in Moatize ( Besharati, 2012, p. 3).

In addition to previous sectors, in 2009 the Brazilian Defense Minister visited¹³⁸ Mozambique and announced the donation of airplanes to the Mozambican Air Force and also the training of 700 soldiers from the Mozambican Army as part of a Mozambican peacekeeping contingent to serve in missions in Africa¹³⁹.

Brazil-Equatorial Guinea relations

Diplomatic relations between the two nations were established in 1974 and Brazil inaugurated an embassy in Malabo in 2005, the same year in which the African nations opened an embassy in Brasilia. President Teodoro Obiango visited Brazil in 2006 and 2008¹⁴⁰ and President Lula da Silva visited Equatorial Guinea in July 2010. Brazil was particularly criticized for the EG visit because Foreign Minister Amorim justified the visit as “business are business”¹⁴¹. During the July visit Brazil and EG signed a defense cooperation agreement¹⁴². In February 2010, President Lula enacted a technical cooperation agreement¹⁴³ with EG that had been signed in 2005¹⁴⁴.

Brazil was criticized for supporting in March 2012, the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea award for scientific research in Africa. The prize had originally been approved by UNESCO’s Executive Council in 2008, but was never awarded and was suspended in May 2010. The Brazilian government responded that supported the prize because it would help finance research against diseases that are endemic in the African continent¹⁴⁵. NGO representatives believe that Brazil’s decision to support the prize reflected commercial interests in Equatorial Guinea, especially regarding oil exploitation¹⁴⁶. Oil was discovered in 1996 and since 2000, EG is exporting oil to Brazil, total trade between the two nations was 411 million US dollars in 2008, with a 369 million surplus for EG¹⁴⁷.

Brazilian relations with EG also involve an important dimension of Brazil’s contemporary project towards Africa, which includes the Community of Portuguese Speaking Nations (CPLP).The Brazilian government was pressured by Brazilian and Portuguese activists not to support President Mbasogo’s desire that his country becomes a full member of the CPLP. Equatorial Guinea became an observer associate state of the organization in 2006 and a final decision on the status of EG was to be made in 2010, but a series of protests made the CPLP postpone the decision to a summit meeting in 2012. Former Brazilian Foreign Minister Amorim supported the admission of Equatorial Guinea mentioning that by bringing Equatorial Guinea closer to Brazil and other Portuguese speaking countries could have a positive influence in the political situation in the country and leading to the adopting of certain practices that are important to Brazil and other Portuguese speaking nations¹⁴⁸.