Brasília, 3/22/2004(Agência Brasil) - Yesterday minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, travelled to China on an official mission to make preparations for the visit by president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to that country in May.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of relations between Brazil and the People's Republic of China. Those relations have been characterized by cooperation in technology and convergent positions in multilateral forums.

Last year bilateral trade reached US$6.7 billion, with China becoming the biggest importer of Brazilian goods in Asia and the third biggest in the world, behind only the United States and Argentina.

Brazil-China relations are based on the idea of a "strategic partnership" that the two nations set up in the 1990s. The two countries have the southern hemisphere's most important hi-tech cooperation program, the Sino-Brazilian Earth Resources Satellite Program.

During the Amorim visit, a Varig office will be inaugurated in Beijing. The minister has scheduled meetings with prime minister Wen Jiabao; minister of Foreign Relations, Li Zhaoxing; state counsel and former minister of Foreign Relations, Tang Jiaxuan; the minister of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industryfor National Defense, Zhang Yunchuan; and the minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai.

When he leaves Beijing on Wednesday, Amorim will travel to Japan. (translator: Allen Bennett)