Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvia’s toast to “my friend Xi Jinping” at the gala dinner that concluded the highly productive state visit of the Chinese President Nov. 20, expressed the spirit of their friendship, based on a common, fierce commitment to ensure that all people, everywhere, can live decent, productive lives.
“Were it not for the fact that we are the presidents of the two largest developing countries in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, many would say that a Chinese engineer and a Brazilian lathe operator have little in common. Through different life circumstances, we have both experienced the pain of hunger and the evils of poverty up close. We have transformed personal adversity into the deepest determination to eliminate these scourges of humanity,” Lula da Silva said.
“President Xi is known for his dynamism and great sense of social justice. These characteristics he has been able to transfer to his administration. It is with great admiration that we look at the results of China’s social programs, which have lifted 100 million people out of poverty in ten years.
“You have led China at a time of rapid and far-reaching change in the world. And you have served as an inspiration for the profound changes that humanity must undertake in order to talk more about peace than war; to co-operate more than compete; to create more than destroy.
“Sixty-five years ago, a great Brazilian sociologist called Brazil `Tropical China’ and predicted that our countries’ presence in the world would become increasingly significant.
“Today, as we celebrate half a century of diplomatic relations between Brazil and China, we have become an example of South-South cooperation. We have shown, each in our own way, possible paths to fair and equitable development. Our countries are aligned in their defense of international law, multilateralism and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
