Macron is the first French president to visit Brazil in the past 11 years. Brazilian President Lula da Silva travelled about 1,600 km to the city of Belem, the capital of the State of Para, to welcome his French counterpart. The Brazilian President also accompanied his French counterpart to three of the four cities that Macron visited during his visit.
Observers said that the enthusiastic welcome showed that the Brazilian leader highly valued the visit of the French President, as well as the relationship between the two countries.
One of the focuses of President Macron's visit to Brazil is to promote bilateral cooperation in forest protection and the fight against climate change.
On this occasion, the two countries launched a 1 billion EUR programme to protect the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon rainforest.
The two leaders' announcements showed their determination to stop deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, thereby contributing to slowing global warming.
This is an important decision for Brazil, as about 60% of the Amazon forest area is located in this country. In particular, Brazil will host the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 30) in 2025.
Economic cooperation was also an issue attracting great attention from the two leaders. France is Brazil's third largest investor. The two-way trade turnover in 2023 reached 8.4 billion USD.
However, President Macron pointed out a gap in bilateral investment. While more than 1,000 French companies have invested about 44 billion USD in Brazil, Brazilian companies have put only 2 billion USD in France, according to figures compiled by the Elysee.
At the 5th Brazil-France Economic Forum, Macron called on Brazilian companies to increase the potential for economic cooperation between the two countries.
The outcomes of President Macron's trip are important to efforts to warm the bilateral relations.
During the visit, the two leaders also discussed ways to promote cooperation in defence.
The outcomes of President Macron's trip are important to efforts to warm the bilateral relations.
The relations between the two countries worsened in the 2019-2022 period, mainly due to their disagreements on the issue of protecting the Amazon forest.
At that time, President Macron and leaders of many European countries criticised the Brazilian Government for not taken strong actions to prevent deforestation, causing fires to rage in the Amazon. Escalating tensions frozen political relations between the two countries.
Therefore, in addition to commitments to work together to protect forests, combat climate change, and strengthen economic cooperation, this visit also opens a new beginning for France-Brazil relations.
However, experts have said that France-Brazil relations still face many barriers, especially their differing views related to the conflict in Ukraine and disagreements over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur, or the Southern Common Market — an economic and political bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
In 2019, after 20 years of rough negotiations, the EU and Mercosur reached a framework agreement on an FTA. However, this document has not been ratified yet.
Since taking office as President of Brazil, Lula da Silva has made continuous efforts to push the trade deal.
Meanwhile, France took the lead in opposing the EU-Mercosu FTA, if South American manufacturers do not meet EU environmental and health standards.
Even during the recent visit to Brazil, President Macron affirmed that the current agreement does not bring benefits to both sides.
Although there are still knots that need to be resolved, the France-Brazil relations has been much improved after President Macron's visit. Analysts expect that the bilateral cooperation will not only bring economic benefits to the two countries, but also bring intensifed efforts to protect forests and combat climate change.
