Lula and Macron launch submarine built in Brazil with French technology

The presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and France, Emmanuel Macron, launched this Wednesday (27) a submarine built in Brazil with French technology, as part of the program to build the first Brazilian submarine with propulsion nuclear power by the end of the decade.

Lula and Macron participated in a ceremony at the Itaguaí (RJ) shipyard for the launch of the third diesel-powered submarine built in a US$10 billion partnership between the two countries.

Brazil’s first lady, Janja da Silva, broke a bottle of champagne on the bow of the Tonelero submarine at her christening, and the two presidents activated a lever that sent the Scorpene-class ship overboard.

The program started in 2008, during Lula’s previous presidential term, is a partnership with Naval Group, a French state-owned company in which the defense company Thales has a 35% stake.

The Brazilian government has said its fleet of submarines is needed to defend the country’s nearly 7,500km coastline and its waters in the Atlantic Ocean, where the country exploits vast oil fields. offshore.

In his speech, Lula stated that “from this Itaguaí shipyard we glimpse the vastness of the 5.7 million km² of Brazilian maritime space”. “95% of Brazilian foreign trade transits through the South Atlantic, where there are natural resources and rich biodiversity that are still unexplored. From the Blue Amazon we extract 85% of the oil, 75% of the natural gas and 45% of the fish produced in the country”.

According to the Brazilian president, “the protection of this natural heritage and the maintenance of the South Atlantic as a Zone of Peace and Cooperation are central aspects of Brazilian foreign policy”, and France is part of this. “Over the last 150 years, these national goals have become reality with French support. Several of the Brazilian Navy’s ships were built in France.”

Macron in Brazil

Macron is making a three-day visit to Brazil this week, to relaunch the bilateral relationship and strategic partnership between the countries, after a separation between Brazil and France during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), whom Macron criticized for not having protected the Amazon rainforest.

Macron arrived yesterday in Brazil, in Belém (PA), where the country will host COP30 in 2025. Lula received him in the capital of Pará and together they committed to working in partnership to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 (French Guiana, which it is also part of the biome, it is part of the European country).

Macron will meet with businesspeople in São Paulo later today and, tomorrow, will make a state visit to Brasília. Brazilian industry intends to use the French president’s visit to Fiesp to demand the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

(With Reuters)