Brazil: Lula, suffering from pneumonia, postpones trip to China indefinitely

The trip will eventually fail. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decided to postpone his trip to China scheduled for Sunday indefinitely to recover from “mild pneumonia,” the government said on Saturday.

The Brazilian president was originally scheduled to travel to China on Saturday, but due to “mild pneumonia” the trip was delayed by a day on Friday. Lula, 77, “decided to postpone his trip to China. This delay has been communicated to the Chinese authorities,” the press release from the presidential public relations secretariat said, without specifying a new date for the trip.

“Despite the clinical improvement, the medical service of the President of the Republic recommends that the trip to China be postponed until the end of the virus transmission cycle,” said Dr. Ana Helena Germoglio in a presidential press release.

A large delegation was originally planned

According to the daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, it was high blood pressure that prompted Lulu to undergo a medical examination on Thursday evening upon her return to Brasilia. He had just had a rough day in Rio de Janeiro, notably visiting the Scorpène submarine yard, built in partnership with the French Naval Group.

Lula was to travel to Beijing at the head of a large delegation of six ministers, governors, deputies, senators and about 200 business leaders. In particular, on Tuesday, he was supposed to meet with his colleague Xi Jinping, with whom he was supposed to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and present the still unclear outlines of a proposal for mediation by a group of neutral countries.

China is Brazil’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $150 billion last year.