Lula meets the prince who gave Bolsonaro jewelry – Politica

President Lula (PT) and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman met for about 20 minutes on Sunday (10/9) at the Taj Palace Hotel, on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

The Brazilian government said that Mohammed bin Salman, as the Saudi prince and prime minister is known, did not give gifts to Lula. Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is under investigation on charges of receiving jewelry from the Saudis and not sending the gifts to the public archive, keeping them in his personal collection.

This was the first bilateral meeting between Lula and Mohammed bin Salman, and the Saudi expressed several times his interest in investing in Brazil in the oil, gas and mining sector as well as in green fuels.

But Saudi Arabia was the main opponent of the idea of ​​including in the final declaration of the G20 a mention of specific goals for the timetable to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and a date for the peak of carbon emissions.

The Gulf kingdom has invested in fuels such as green hydrogen, in an attempt, according to environmentalists, to “greenwash” – to improve the country’s reputation in the environmental sector.

Lula was going to meet with Mohammed bin Salman in June in France, during the Development Finance Summit organized by French President Emmanuel Macron, but the bilateral meeting did not happen. The first meeting was then scheduled to be held on Saturday (9/9), but the Saudi canceled it with Lula due to an unexpected extension of his meeting with United States President Joe Biden.

According to a Brazilian government source who attended the meeting, the Saudi prince began the meeting by saying that Lula is a very well-known person, and he has heard about him several times.