In this article, the author analyzes the role that Lula has to play in reshaping the alliances between the countries of South and Latin America.
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.
The inauguration of Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva as President of Brazil is great news for Latin America and the Caribbean. The South American giant is expected to regain the international leadership it has had in the past and help revitalize or revitalize the various integration processes in the region, which is more important than ever in the bicentenary of the disastrous Monroe Doctrine .
The agenda ranges from the revival of Mercosur to Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) via Unasur, to name just the most important. A sign of the reorientation of Brazilian foreign policy is the new president’s commitment not only to attend the next Celac summit on January 24 in Buenos Aires, but also to reintegrate Brazil into this body, from which he had resigned following a decision by the government of Jair Bolsonaro.
Apparently, this is only part of the agenda that Mauro Vieira, Lula’s chancellor, has in hand. Strengthening ties with countries in the Global South is another of his priorities, as is insisting on reforming the United Nations Security Council to guarantee Brazil a permanent seat on that body. Another priority will undoubtedly be the revival of the BRICS countries, the agreement between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which is currently in a difficult (but not insoluble) expansion process, promoted by Beijing and considering inclusion draws from Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Senegal and Thailand. After his trip to Argentina, Lula initially planned a couple of highly contradictory visits: first to the White House; and then to Beijing. Both in the first quarter of the year.
That being said, Lula will have to use all his diplomatic skills and skillful negotiator to avoid getting caught up in the crusade launched by the Biden administration against Brazil’s two partners in the BRICS: against Russia, through the “proxy war” or “proxy war.” , which is being conducted on Ukrainian soil with the complicity of Europe’s undignified neo-colonial governments; and the increasing escalation of the war against China, the “main enemy” according to the latest National Security Council document, because, according to what it says, it is the only country that has the will and ability to reshape the current order to his advantage. World. Russia has the will, but not the ability. The war in Ukraine is a ploy designed precisely to undermine that ability.
But China is different. For Brazil, the Asian country is by far the first trading partner: exchanges between the two reached $135 billion in 2022, more than double that with the United States. Biden’s gestures regarding the Asian giant couldn’t be more bellicose, and for Lula more embarrassing: from inviting a representative from Taiwan to his inauguration as president, an unprecedented gesture since the United States officially recognized the People’s Republic of China, and doing the same to mark his ill-fated “summit for democracy” at which the Taipei envoy sat alongside none other than Juan Guaidó and other figures of his ilk. Apart from that, we must remember the ongoing provocations carried out by US forces in the South China Sea, or the visit of Nancy Pelosi, who tried to deny China access to microchips.
Lula knows another of his BRICS partners, India, is also not viewed favorably by Washington today because its redoubled trade with Russia as an economic contribution to its military efforts in Ukraine and to mitigating the impact of sanctions Biden imposed on Russia has imposed is interpreted . So, behind the friendly smile stamped on the official photograph in the Oval Room of the White House, it is very likely that once the photographers have left, the tension that characterizes the international system today will be carried over with full force to the meeting of the two heads of state . Washington needs unconditional allies for its holy crusade against Russia and China, and the worst thing Brazil, or any other Latin Caribbean country, can do is engage in a battle that is utterly alien to us and in which it has almost nothing to lose lose to win. Lula surely knows that one of the few ways to avoid being recruited into this war is to strengthen the union of the countries of Our America. Hopefully he can act, or they let him act accordingly.