LatinNews Daily - 21 April 2026

*Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has met with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the city of Hanover. From 19-20 April Brazilian government officials attended the Hannover Messe, one of the world’s largest industrial sector trade fairs, where they also held meetings with German officials and signed cooperation agreements covering sectors such as defence, infrastructure, climate science, energy, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. In a press conference in Hanover after his meeting with Merz yesterday, Lula highlighted several opportunities to boost Brazil-Germany ties. These include cooperation on the extraction of critical minerals in Brazil; on new technologies and smart devices for Brazilian hospitals; as well as a Brazilian-German consortium to build naval warships, with Lula saying that a batch of four Tamandaré-class frigates is due to be completed by 2028. According to a Brazilian government press release, Germany is Brazil’s fourth largest trade partner, with bilateral trade totalling US$21bn, while German direct investment in Brazil is over US$40bn.