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China and Brazil are also partners in space: the first joint satellite is arriving

In the days of President Xi Jinping's European visit, which confirms China's key role in relations with Russia, Beijing is increasingly extending its tentacles into South America. The satellite is a prelude to a possible joint lunar mission, after Bolsonaro had promised himself to the USA

China and Brazil are also partners in space: the first joint satellite is arriving

Precisely in the days of the Chinese president's first European tour Xi Jinping after five years, under the banner of the European institutions' attempt to re-establish commercial relations and above all to find support for to convince Russia's Vladimir Putin to evaluate one peaceful solution for Ukraine, Beijing intensifies its soft power on the other side of the world, that is, in South America. While waiting to understand whether Xi can really play a role of moral suasion with Moscow, at the moment the certainty is that China has offered the opportunity to Russia to compensate for the consequences of the EU sanctions: in 2023 trade between the two countries has reached the record value of 240 billion dollars, up 26,3% on 2022 and with exports from the Asian country increased by 47%. And Beijing is doing the same in South America, in particular in Brazil with which it celebrates half a century of partnership and which for a couple of years has been by far the first interlocutor for Chinese business.

The China-Brazil connection

The pattern is clear and consolidated: Brazil, which is the world's leading producer of 10 agri-food raw materials, many of which are coveted by the Asian partner (in particular soya and beef), it exports them to China, from which it receives industrial products and investments in exchange. All of this, in 2023, reached a record value of 480 billion dollars. And among the investments that Beijing makes in Brazilian territory there are also others technological and strategic, of those that determine not only economic returns but above all serve to "plant a flag", to bring a country, such as Brazil, which is among the top ten world economies by nominal value of GDP, into its sphere of influence.

A spatial partnership

The latest news comes from an organ whose existence already testifies to the level of relations between the two countries: Cosban (Comissão Sino-Brasileira de Alto Nível de Concertação e Cooperação) has announced that within a few weeks the creation of a joint satellite for meteorology, but also for monitoring agriculture (so-called "space agriculture") will be made official and for the defense of the environment, in particular the Amazon.

Already in this way the partnership would be particularly intense and strategic, but a high-tech infrastructure such as a satellite it also implies the possibility of exchange strategic information e sensitive data, which is a bit like the way in which Beijing is extending its tentacles over the world, including Europe. Also this for the Brazil it is not new news, given that it is currently the largest economy in South America it does not have its own satellite: “We use data provided by European, US or Japanese satellites, which we will continue to use anyway – said the president of the Brazilian Space Agency, Marco Antonio Chamon -. This will allow us to have more precise weather forecasts."

The importance obviously goes beyond the forecast to be given to the common citizen to plan a weekend: it is about equipping ourselves against climate change, trying to anticipate extreme and catastrophic events such as the terrible floods that are devastating the Rio in recent days Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, causing hundreds of victims and millions of displaced, missing people and families left without electricity and water.

The agreement between Xi and Lula

The satellite falls within the scope ofagreement signed a year ago between Xi Jinping and Lula for a more intense collaboration in the space sector, it will be called Cbers-6 and will be operational by 2028. “The Chinese – added Chamon – would also like to involve us in the program for the permanent lunar base ILRS, but the previous Bolsonaro government had signed with the competing US program Artemis”. In this sentence there is the whole meaning of Lula's move, which not surprisingly also has softer positions on Russia than the Western community: the future of Brazil and South America is increasingly oriented towards the so-called "new world order", i.e. the former Brics area closest toRussia-China-India axis than to the Euro-Atlantic one. Starting from Space.

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