President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will arrive in London on Friday (5) for the coronation of King Carlos III, which will take place the following day (6).

Also on Friday, Lula will attend a royal reception at Buckingham Palace, an act which will bring together the dozens of heads of state invited to the coronation and which the new king will receive. On Saturday, Charles III’s coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey.

bilateral meeting

Prior to the reception, Lula will meet the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, the Head of the British Government. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Lula and Sunak. The two spoke by phone in December 2022, before Lula’s inauguration.

According to ambassador Maria Luisa Escorel, secretary for Europe and North America of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the signing of any agreement is not expected.

Escorel stressed that the bilateral meeting was an opportunity to strengthen relations between countries, maintaining a series of agreements and multilateral mechanisms in various sectors, such as energy transition, health, defense and environmental preservation.

The Ambassador highlighted the partnership in major international forums, citing, as an example, Britain’s support for Brazil’s candidacy for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. “The United Kingdom has always highlighted Brazil as a priority country in its foreign policy,” he said.

Similarly, Escorel reports that the British Foreign Secretary will go to Brazil on May 23 and 24 for the sixth edition of the high-level dialogue, when there will be political consultations between the foreign ministers. The last meeting of this type took place in 2017. A British foreign minister has not visited Brazil since 2014. Some of the topics of interest to the country are science and technology, climate change and increasing trade flows.

In 2022, bilateral trade will total US$6.5 billion, an increase of 15% compared to 2021. Brazil’s exports to the UK amount to US$3.7 billion, but represent less than 2% of the country’s total export sales abroad. Imports reached US$2.8 billion. The balance was in Brazil’s favour, and the areas with the greatest investment from Britain were extraction, finance and transport.

Coronation

At the age of 74, Charles became king on September 8 last year, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who remained in power for 70 years, the longest reign on the British throne. In March, Lula and Carlos spoke by phone, focusing on environmental issues, which have historically been Carlos’ priority.

As prince, Carlos visited Brazil four times (1978, 1991, 2002 and 2009), each time visiting the Amazon region.

King Charles III will be the 40th monarch to be crowned at Westminster Abbey, in a ceremony with music and readings that has been held for more than 900 years and has followed Anglican Church rituals since 1534, when it was reformed by King Henry VIII. Before taking the oath, the new king would be anointed with aromatic oils.

The event will be attended by hundreds of foreign leaders, mainly from Commonwealth countries, an association of 56 countries nearly all of which are part of the British Empire. Of these, 14 continue to have the British monarch as Head of State.

Security has been tightened for the event, and 30,000 police officers will be on the streets of London over the next few days.