Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed to cooperate on bringing artificial intelligence to improve agriculture in both of their countries, and Lula called on his counterpart to join an initiative aimed at saving the world’s forests.

In a statement issued from the sidelines of the annual Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, the two sides also highlighted the “excellent moment in bilateral relations” and reaffirmed their “commitment to multilateralism and peace, underlining the role of BRICS in defending multilateral trade and climate regimes”.

Plans for the centre, whose focus will be on farming in semi-arid regions, were initially agreed to in Brasília during a meeting last month between Luciana Santos, Brazil’s minister of science, technology and innovation, and Lin Xin, China’s vice-minister of science and technology and secretary for technological development.

One of the centre’s first projects will be the creation of an AI laboratory focused on supporting family farming, through a partnership between Brazil’s National Semi-arid Institute (Insa) and the China Agricultural University.

According to Insa Director José Etham Barbosa, the joint project aims to find ways to connect AI technologies to machinery commonly used on smaller-scale farms to improve environmental monitoring and soil quality.

The Sertão region in Brazil’s northeast is home to nearly 22 million people, making it one of the world’s most populous and biodiverse semi-arid areas. Covering about 11% of the country’s territory, it is characterised by heat, drought and sparse vegetation.

“We are bringing together various institutions to advance technology transfer, promote well-being, and embed these technologies into machinery for environmental and soil monitoring, so that we can transform the semi-arid region through this partnership,” Barbosa said at the time.

The two sides will also set up a working group tasked with identifying what kinds of technology exchange would support industrial innovation in both countries, and where they could establish more research centres to support the effort.

The announcement comes against a backdrop of trade tensions that Beijing is trying to work out with US President Donald Trump, who is holding American tech export restrictions as leverage in his effort to secure greater access to critical minerals for American firms. Last month, both nations said they reached a consensus on the issue, and the US eased limits on some chip design software exports to China.

China remains heavily reliant on US technology in hi-tech sectors such as smartphones, semiconductors, software, pharmaceuticals, engines, AI, drones, cloud computing, and autonomous vehicles.

Since 2022, Washington has tightened limits on the export of advanced technologies, especially semiconductors needed for AI training, in an effort to curb China’s progress in developing military capabilities considered to be a threat to US national security.

Chinese firms have been added to the US Entity Lists, restricting their access to high-performance chips from American companies, including Nvidia and AMD. The US has also pressured allies, including the Netherlands and Japan, to block exports of advanced chipmaking tools, notably from the Dutch firm ASML.

In response, China has accelerated its push for tech self-reliance. Firms like Huawei and SMIC have registered some success, with Huawei developing its own chips and software, and SMIC producing 7-nanometre chips. However, challenges remain on attracting skilled talent and scaling up production.

To overcome these hurdles, China has deepened tech ties with Russia, Malaysia and some other countries.

In addition to AI cooperation, Lula and Li Qiang also pledged to expand collaboration on semiconductors and renewable energy, and to strengthen ties between shipyards in both countries. No further details were revealed on these efforts.

China is the world’s leading shipbuilder, accounting for 50% of global production and launching around 1,700 new vessels each year.

The meeting also touched on other points of cooperation, including the development of geostationary satellites and the deepening of the memorandum on “synergies” between national development programmes.

The goal is to build on agreements signed during Xi Jinping’s state visit to Brasília in November, when the two leaders pledged to identify projects from Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Program, one of Lula’s main campaign promises, that could be financed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The framework was the solution found by Brazilian diplomats to cooperate with the BRI without joining the Chinese trade and infrastructure initiative as Beijing wanted.

The leaders concluded their meeting with a request from Lula for China to join the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF) at COP30, which Brazil is also hosting in November. The Brasília-led initiative aims to mobilise around US$4bil (RM16.95bil) per year to be distributed proportionally to countries that preserve their forests by keeping deforestation below a defined threshold. – South China Morning Post