Less than two weeks after his election as president of the United States, Donald Trump will not be present at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, November 18 and Tuesday, November 19. While the Republican forms his government before taking office on January 20, 2025, it is Joe Biden who must say goodbye to his counterparts from the twenty main economic powers on the planet.
From one president to another, the shadow of the next tenant of the White House will loom over the summit, with the G20 being more than ever the scene of rivalries between the rich states of the North and the emerging states of the South. An organization that the prospect of the former Republican president’s return to power promises to electrify, at a time when there are already many points of contention, in a context of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The host of the summit, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is particularly concerned. After having renounced hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin, the subject of an arrest warrant for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, of which Brazil is a State party, Lula intends to focus on economic and climate issues, rather than on the Ukraine conflict. In this task they should receive help from Western leaders, who fear that Donald Trump’s victory will accelerate the fragmentation of the world.
Thus, as a prelude to the G20, Emmanuel Macron will make a brief visit to Argentina to have dinner on Saturday, November 16, with President Javier Milei, an ultraliberal close to Donald Trump, criticized for his climate-skeptical positions. The stated objective of the Elysée is “connect Javier Milei with the G20 priorities”.
President Lula knows that Trump’s return is fraught with threats, for his country and for his guests. The billionaire could, for example, increase customs duties on Brazilian aluminum and steel, while the Latin American giant’s exports break records, with almost $30 billion (28.5 billion euros) in industrial products sold in the United States in 2023. .That’s enough. to undermine Lula’s economic record and jeopardize his re-election in 2026.
“Repositioning of Brazil”
The left-wing president anticipates possible pressure from his future American counterpart for former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro to be amnestied. The former head of state (2019-2023) was sentenced in 2023 to eight years of disqualification for his attacks against the Brazilian electronic voting system and is prevented from running in the 2026 presidential elections.
You have 62.58% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
