Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been preparing for this meeting for a long time. On November 18 and 19, world leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit. This is an event the way he likes it: theatrical and unifying, with the Corcovado and the Sugar Loaf in the background, with himself, with a smile on his lips and a thumbs up, right in the center of the photo. The Brazilian president will be able to savor his consecration.
“Brazil is back!” »repeat to anyone who will listen. Gone are the times of the extreme right of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), considered a true pariah internationally. Since his re-election in October 2022, Lula has visited thirty-two countries and spent more than two and a half months abroad. Including his first two terms (2003-2010), he will have made 139 trips to 80 States and reached Antarctica. How many leaders can boast such experience?
Lula has always dreamed of making his country a leading player on the world stage. “We are determined to transform Brazil into a great country! »he proclaimed again in June, in a speech in Rio. An ambition, and even a great design, that he intends to keep high during the next G20, although overshadowed by the return to the White House of Donald Trump.
The Brazilian likes to talk about his “golden decade” Emboldened by strong growth, Brazil then established itself at the center of the geopolitical game. Lula quickly won the organization of the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. He participated in the creation of the BRIC group in 2009 (which became BRICS after the entry of South Africa in 2011). the rise of the G20 in 2008, during the financial crisis. In 2004 he obtained command of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti for his country, the results of which were certainly disappointing and highly criticized.
“Able to break the ice with anyone”
Lula wants to be the voice of a global South that is still in its infancy, particularly during negotiations at the World Trade Organization. To structure this budding “bloc”, it is promoting the creation of interregional summits between South America and Arab countries or Africa. He is one of the fathers of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), formed in 2008 and which brings together the twelve countries of South America. Like the European Union (EU), then a reference for Lula, it would include a bank and even a Parliament, based in Cochabamba (Bolivia). But these institutions will never see the light: in the course of political crises, several countries abandon Unasur or disconnect from it.
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