RIO DE JANEIRO, March 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Wedding photos or a diplomatic
visit? The apparent "bromance" between French President Emmanuel Macron and
his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has set social media fans
alight.

During his three-day visit to Brazil, 46-year-old Macron was pictured smiling
and warmly embracing Lula, 78, during a trip to the Amazonian rainforest.

Many of the images have since circulated wildly among social media users in
Brazil alongside montages and witty comments.

One picture showing the leaders raising their arms underneath a large tree
has been edited to show them holding red balloons in the shape of a heart.

Another portrays the pair hand in hand, smiling as they look at the horizon
while floating in a boat along the Amazon River.

"They are going to marry in the Amazon and have their honeymoon in Paris,"
joked one user on X, while others said pictures from the trip could make up a
wedding album.

Macron's warm relations with Lula mark a departure from the frosty ties
between the French leader and Brazil's former right-wing president Jair
Bolsonaro, who led the country from 2019 to 2022.

His trip, which will end Thursday in Brasilia when he meets Lula at the
presidential palace, saw the two leaders announce a billion-dollar green
investment plan for the Amazon.

France, the seventh-largest economy in the world, and Brazil, the ninth-
largest, are considered key players in a geopolitical scene marked by rivalry
between China and the United States.

Paris sees Brasilia as a bridge to large emerging economies whose voices
Brazil is trying to amplify through its presidency of the G20, and membership
of the BRICS+ group.