Due to a medical emergency, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had to postpone a high-profile trip to China from March 27 to 31. His press secretary announced the postponement on Saturday.
The press secretary issued a medical statement noting that treatment had begun for the 77-year-old Lula’s bacterial and viral bronchopneumonia, which was caused by influenza A, after a clinical examination.
The memo said that despite clinical improvement, the medical staff of the Republic’s presidency advised delaying the travel to China until the viral transmission cycle was through.
The Brazilian government has notified the Chinese authorities that the visit has been postponed and that it plans to reschedule it.
The trip was seen as a major move by the new leftist president to improve ties with Brazil’s top economic partner and was scheduled to include a meeting with China President Xi Jinping on Tuesday.
Lula was inaugurated in January. After being told that he had minor pneumonia, he had already decided to postpone his departure from Saturday to Sunday.
He was supposed to go with a sizable entourage that included 240 business executives, governors, and 12 cabinet officials. The agricultural sector of Brazil, which exports the majority of its cattle, soybeans, and wood pulp to China, accounted for more than a third of the business leaders.
With the postponement, focus is now on the unveiling of a much-anticipated fiscal framework in Brazil, which Finance Minister Fernando Haddad had previously planned for March but Lula had delayed until after the China trip.
According to his press office, Haddad, who was initially scheduled to go alongside Lula, will no longer visit China.
After Lula won legislative approval for a multibillion real package that skirts the constitutional expenditure limit to increase social spending and keep campaign pledges, the new structure is seen as crucial to resolving budgetary worries.