Brazil, Vietnam discuss plane, beef deals and BRICS summit

By Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu

HANOI (Reuters) -Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday Vietnam may buy Embraer planes and become a regional hub for Brazilian meat processing operations, as he met Vietnam's President Luong Cuong in Hanoi.

Lula also recognised the Communist-run country as a market economy, invited Vietnam to attend a BRICS summit in Brazil later this year and pledged a Mercosur trade agreement with Hanoi.

Lula's second visit to Vietnam comes as Hanoi, under pressure from the Trump administration to reduce its large trade surplus, has promised to boost U.S. imports, including farm products such as soybeans of which Brazil is a top exporter to the country.

At a media conference with Lula, Cuong said Vietnam was "seriously considering" allowing Brazilian beef into the country.

"Opening the Vietnamese market to Brazilian beef would attract investment from Brazilian meat packers to make this country an export platform for Southeast Asia," Lula said.

Brazilian food giant JBS is considering building a meat-processing plant in northern Vietnam, its first in Asia, if Vietnam opens its market to Brazilian beef, Reuters reported last week citing sources.

Lula also said he was aware that flagship carrier Vietnam Airlines was "positively assessing Embraer's offer" for regional jets, noting Brazil wanted to export planes to Hanoi.

The Brazilian planemaker is in talks for the possible sale of ten E190 narrow-body jets to Vietnam Airlines, one Brazilian official told Reuters last week. The two companies did not comment.

Embraer and JBS are part of a large business delegation accompanying Lula on his trip to Vietnam.

The two countries signed a five-year action plan, which officials said focuses on defence, agriculture, energy and technology, and other pacts, including one on football cooperation.

Lula invited Vietnam to the BRICS summit Brazil will host in July. Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended a BRICS summit as an observer for the first time last year, but Hanoi has so far not accepted an invitation to become a formal partner of the club led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Cuong made no comment about BRICS in his public statement.

Lula said the Brazilian presidency of Mercosur in the second half of the year will seek "a balanced agreement with Vietnam", implying there will be talks on a trade deal between Vietnam and the South American bloc.

He also proposed to expand technical cooperation with Vietnam on coffee crops at a time when the world's two biggest coffee producers are facing challenges from climate change.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Khanh Vu, Thinh Nguyen and Phuong Nguyen; Editing by John Mair and Sonali Paul)