Macron, Lula hail defense ties at submarine launch

French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday celebrated the launch of Brazil’s third French-designed submarine, which would help secure the country’s coastline.

The two men highlighted the importance of their countries’ defense partnership at a ceremony at a naval base in Itaguai, near Rio de Janeiro.

It is there that Brazil built the Tonelero, the third of four planned conventional diesel attack submarines, with training, equipment and technical assistance from France.

Under cloudy skies, the submarine was christened by Brazilian first lady Rosangela da Silva.

France’s and Brazil’s defense ties “will allow two important countries, each on a continent, to prepare so that we can face this adversity, without worrying about any type of war, because we are defenders of peace,” Lula said.

Despite differences, notably on the Ukraine war, Macron said “the great peaceful powers of Brazil and France” had “the same vision of the world.”

Macron is on a whirlwind tour of Brazil, a major economic ally, which began on Tuesday with the launch of a plan to raise more than US$1 billion in green investments to protect the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon.

The visit is the first by a French president to Latin America’s economic giant in more than a decade.

A meeting between Macron and Lula in the Amazon, in which the two men were pictured beaming and clasping hands in the jungle, spawned a raft of Internet memes about their “bromance.”

The cozy scenes continued on Wednesday at the submarine launch.

With its 8,500km of coastline, Brazil is seeking to ensure the security of what it calls the “blue Amazon,” its immense exclusive economic zone through which more than 95 percent of its foreign trade passes and where it extracts 95 percent of its oil.

The construction of the submarines was outlined in a 2008 deal between Lula and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, which also included the purchase of 50 Caracal helicopters.

The fourth submarine, the Angostura, is scheduled to be launched next year.