Two Former Child Laborers, One Strategic Calculus
The setting was the Blue House in Seoul, recently restored as South Korea’s presidential residence. The guests were two heads of state who share an unusual personal history — both worked in factories as children, both survived industrial accidents, and both rose to lead major economies. The agenda, however, was strictly forward-looking.
Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Lee Jae Myung signed ten memorandums of understanding covering critical minerals, artificial intelligence, defense and space industries, agriculture, biotechnology, digital economy, and policing cooperation against cybercrime and narcotics. They announced a four-year action plan and agreed to elevate the relationship to a formal strategic partnership.
Rare Earths Meet Semiconductors
The core trade is straightforward. Brazil holds the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves after China, plus significant nickel deposits — raw materials essential for batteries, electronics, and defense technology. South Korea is a global leader in semiconductors, shipbuilding, and EV batteries, and needs to diversify its mineral supply chains away from Chinese dominance.
Lula explicitly pitched Brazil as an investment destination for Korean firms seeking secure mineral access. For Seoul, the deal offers a hedge at a moment when U.S. tariff chaos is forcing every export-dependent economy to rethink its partnerships.
Mercosur Talks Back on the Table
The leaders also agreed to restart negotiations for a trade agreement between South Korea and Mercosur — the South American bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Talks began in 2018 but stalled over familiar disputes: agricultural access for South American exporters versus protection for Korean farmers and manufacturers.
Reviving those negotiations now carries a different weight. With U.S. trade policy increasingly unpredictable and the EU-Mercosur deal still awaiting ratification, both sides have fresh incentives to diversify. Brazil is South Korea’s largest trade partner in South America, and formalizing the relationship could unlock preferential access for Korean electronics and Brazilian agricultural goods.
Green Diplomacy and the Amazon Fund
Lula also invited South Korea to contribute to the Amazon Fund, a financing mechanism for rainforest conservation that has attracted pledges from Norway, Germany, and other donors. He pushed for joint work on green industries and energy transition — aligning the summit with Brazil’s broader strategy of leveraging its environmental assets in diplomatic negotiations.
Why This Summit Matters
This is Lula’s first state visit to South Korea in 21 years, and it comes at a moment when the global trade architecture is fracturing. Both countries are mid-sized powers navigating between the U.S. and China, and both are betting that bilateral deals — minerals for technology, market access for investment — can offer more stability than relying on a multilateral system under strain. Whether the ten MOUs translate into real capital flows will depend on execution, but the strategic logic is clear on both sides.