Brazil’s vice-president sees no need to join China’s new Silk Road

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Vice President, Hamilton Mourão, assured that he sees no need for his country to enter China’s new Silk Road project, also known as The Belt and Road.

“We have a strategic partnership with China in which investments are already contemplated; we have always made it clear that there would be no need to join the Silk Road,” the vice-president told local newspaper Valor Economico when asked if Argentina’s entry into this infrastructure project would not leave Brazil at a disadvantage.

The government’s number two recalled that Argentina is also a member of Mercosur and that three countries are outside China’s infrastructure project in South America: “Colombia, because of its historical relations with the US, Paraguay, because of its relations with Taiwan, and Brazil, because of its size; we don’t need to be on the Silk Road”, he concluded.

Within the Brazilian government, Mourão was always the figure closest to China and was in charge of ironing out differences when President Jair Bolsonaro caused several diplomatic conflicts with the Asian giant.

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