Lula’s international agenda at the G20 is overshadowed by slips

Seeking to implement an agenda that brings Brazil to prominence through the G20, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is undermining these efforts with the diplomatic crises he has caused over the last few months. For analysts, everything from small “gaffes” to serious distortions of reality and unjustifiable relativism carried out by the PT member have overshadowed his foreign policy agenda.

Since assuming his third term in January 2023, Lula has adopted the slogan that “Brazil has returned” to the international scene. At the head of the G20 since December, the PT member seeks to echo speeches such as the reform of global organizations, the green agenda and energy transition and the fight against social inequality. But what has attracted attention in Lula’s foreign policy are the controversies.

Last year, Lula made controversial statements about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that removed him from the possibility of being a mediator, as he wanted. In one of his statements, Lula even equated the responsibility for war between the two countries.

More recently, the president caused a diplomatic crisis between Brazil and Israel after criticizing the country. Facing a war against the terrorist group Hamas, Lula compared the Israeli counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust. After the comparison, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Lula persona non grata and called what was said by the PT member “unforgivable”.

For experts, the mistakes of the Brazilian Chief Executive delay Brazil’s international agenda. The PT member is also unable to implement old agendas that he has been trying to promote at the head of the G20 and in international forums. At the same time that the diplomatic crisis with Israel was escalating, Brazil hosted the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Rio de Janeiro — a meeting that ended up overshadowed by the noise created with Jerusalem.

“It was hoped that this meeting [do G20 no Rio de Janeiro] had a more vaunted importance and would bring prestige to Brazil and also the possibility of developing, by hosting the meeting, the condition to propose international governance policies and actions. This should be highlighted within other things that the country has proposed, such as social policy mechanisms to combat hunger; economic development; environmental protection measures… but all of this ended up being eclipsed”, assesses Elton Gomes, professor in the Political Science department at the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI).

Crisis with Israel overshadowed meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Rio

The crisis between Brazil and Israel has shaken the Planalto Palace and Itamaraty in recent days. In addition to the noise between the two countries, the United States — a country that has expressed irreducible support for Jerusalem — took a stand against Lula’s accusations about Israel.

“We have been very clear that we do not believe that a genocide occurred in Gaza. We want to see the conflict ended when possible. We want to see increased humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. But we do not agree with these comments,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

The diplomatic crisis with Israel happened in the same week that Brazil received foreign ministers from the G20 in Rio de Janeiro. At the event hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, the aim was to discuss the current geopolitical situation in the world with the bloc’s member countries.

Several nations sent their representatives to participate in the meeting, including Russia, China, the United States, Argentina and the European Union. The two-day summit received little attention in the national or international media, despite the relevance of the topic under discussion.

“The event was eclipsed and this happened due to Lula’s statements in disfavor of the State of Israel. So this whole discussion [ocorrida durante a reunião de chanceleres no G20]which already has the many divisions between the richest countries and developing countries, the United States and China due to global hegemony, and the increasingly important environmental issue, ended up not even appearing as much due to this declaration”, points out Gomes.

On the sidelines of the summit, Lula had bilateral meetings that gained more prominence and attracted media attention. In his office at Palácio do Planalto, the PT member received the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, two days after the crisis with Israel. The secretary came to Brazil for the G20 meeting but stopped by Brasília to meet with the PT member.

At the meeting, Blinken reinforced the US position opposing Lula’s statement and explained how the memory of the Holocaust, which caused the genocide of millions of Jews during World War II, is still a latent memory for the Israeli people.

Lula’s comments about wars kept him away from international discussions

With the motto that “Brazil is back”, Lula took on this third term with the intention of placing the country within the main global discussions. Even in the first months of this government, he even proposed a kind of Peace Club to resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine in Europe.

The proposal, which was nothing more than an idea, was dismissed when the Brazilian began to give contradictory statements about the conflict. Amidst nods to Russia, he accused the G7 (a group made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, Italy, France, Japan and the United Kingdom) of being responsible for the armed conflict between the two countries and also Ukraine.

The statements earned him a series of criticisms. Brazil was also against signing statements condemning Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Lula has avoided receiving President Volodymyr Zelensky in the country.

Still in October, when Hamas attacked Israel, Lula stated that he was available to “find a solution to the conflict” but refused to condemn the terrorist group. It even took seven days for the PT member to call the attack that killed around 1,200 Israelis terrorist.

Since then, the Brazilian started attacking Israel and on more than one occasion called the Israeli counteroffensive against Hamas “genocide”. In the midst of this, Lula was isolated from negotiations seeking a solution to the crisis in the Middle East, while nations such as the United States, Qatar and Egypt gained prominence in these negotiations.