Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will make a state visit to South Korea to elevate bilateral ties across the board, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday.
Lula’s visit from Feb. 22 to 24, at President Lee Jae Myung’s invitation, will mark the first state visit to Korea by a Brazilian leader since Lula's 2005 visit during his first term.
The two leaders are scheduled to hold a summit on the morning of Feb. 23, attend a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding and participate in a state banquet.
“Through this summit, the two leaders plan to strengthen practical cooperation across a wide range of fields — including trade and investment, climate, energy, space, defense industry, science and technology, agriculture, education and culture and people-to-people exchanges — so that bilateral relations can be elevated to the next level,” Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement.
The relationship rests on a long-standing foundation. Brazil was the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic relations with Korea in 1959. Today, it is South Korea’s largest trading and investment partner in South America and home to the biggest Korean diaspora in the region, with some 50,000 Koreans residing there.
Brazil also has growing strategic importance for South Korea’s industrial base. It is a major source of critical raw materials, including lithium used in electric-vehicle battery cells, graphite for battery anodes and nickel for high-energy cathodes. The country also holds large reserves of rare earth minerals essential for semiconductors and high-performance motors. In addition, Brazil leads global production of niobium, a strategic metal that strengthens lightweight steel used in aerospace and defense systems.
Defense cooperation has also gained momentum. Brazil is the largest defense market in Latin America, and in October 2025, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen defense industry cooperation.
Cheong Wa Dae suggested that the leaders’ personal rapport could further accelerate that agenda.
“The two leaders share an emotional bond rooted in having overcome personal adversity and have in common an emphasis on social integration and pragmatism,” Cheong Wa Dae said. “The governing philosophy shared by the two leaders is expected to serve as an important catalyst in further deepening bilateral relations.”
Since Lee’s inauguration, Lee and Lula have met twice, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June last year and at the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa in November.
The leaders found common ground during their meetings, with Lee noting that they both overcame poverty and political persecution to win national elections — a comparison that struck a chord with Lula.
In their first meeting, when Lee shared an anecdote about injuring his arm in a factory press while working as a teenager, Lula asked how old he had been at the time, showing keen personal interest.
The exchange has since been widely cited as emblematic of the personal rapport between Lee and Lula.
Cheong Wa Dae last week explained that Lee extended an invitation to Lula during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa, which the Brazilian leader accepted.
Lula's last visit to Seoul was to attend the G20 summit in November 2010. A Brazilian president has made only two state visits to South Korea to date: the first in January 2001 by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and the second in May 2005, when Lula paid a state visit at the invitation of then-President Roh Moo-hyun.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
