Published 05/17/2023 08:40 | Edited 5/17/2023 5:43 PM
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva travels to Japan this Wednesday (17). He is going to participate in the 49th G7 Summit, in Hiroshima, which begins next Saturday, the 20th, and ends on the 21st, Monday. The group brings together the 7 richest countries in the world: Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom.
Brazil participates in the G7 Summit as a guest country. The invitation to President Lula was made by the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida. 14 years ago, a Brazilian president was not invited to this summit. Lula was the last, in 2009, in Italy.
In addition to Brazil, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Comoros Islands, the Cook Islands, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam were also invited. Representatives of the World Bank, the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund and the International Energy Agency will also be present.
In an interview with red portal, the specialist in International Relations, Flávia Loss Araújo (FESPSP), considered that the G7 is stronger. She believes that with Ukraine’s war there is a reason for them to be more united economically. Until then, the group’s meetings were reduced to Donald Trump’s utilitarianism for warnings to his allies in Europe.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the resumption of Brazil’s participation in the group’s meetings signals the country’s engagement with the G7 and marks the balance in Brazil’s position on sensitive issues on the international scene.
Journalist Wevergton Brito, vice-president of Cebrapaz (Brazilian Center for Solidarity with Peoples and Fight for Peace), also commented to red portal their expectations for Brazil’s encounter with the more industrialized countries. He also believes that Lula’s participation will have a lot of weight with Brazil’s return to the international scene, especially now that he will chair the G20, the group of developing economies.
sensitive topics
According to ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, on the agenda of the G7 are Russia’s war against Ukraine; nuclear disarmament and addressing the vulnerabilities of low- and middle-income countries with inflation.
Climate change, energy transition, food security, health, human rights, gender issues and technology are also on the agenda.
At the end of the G7 summit, two documents should be presented with the countries’ positions on the various topics discussed during the meeting. One, only with member countries of the group, and another with member and guest countries.
Brazilian participation
Two themes are in the focus of the Brazilian leader, according to the secretary of Economic and Financial Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassador Mauricio Lyrio. In December, India will hand over the presidency of the G20 to Brazil. The meetings should also address the different themes on the international agenda from the perspective of developing countries.
Professor Flávia’s expectation for Brazilian participation is that President Lula will once again focus on the traditional themes of these great forums. “He must encourage more investments for economic development, must guide the social issues that are traditional in Brazilian foreign policy. It will bring the sustainability agenda, which is something that Brazil wants to show as a new position, after everything we saw in the Bolsonaro government”, anticipated Flávia.
But the specialist knows that the issue of war is also the center of concern for the Brazilian president. “Lula should probably say something about it, with more caution so as not to be misunderstood, as happened recently, but he should touch on the subject under the bias of a negotiated exit from the war in Ukraine”, she evaluated.
However, for Wevergton, Lula’s participation in the debate on the war and the production of the final text should be an “arm wrestling”. He assesses that the G7’s final declaration should remain in NATO’s bellicose tone, due to the dominance of the allied countries. But there is also the broader declaration with the participation of the invited countries.
“Brazil has a more balanced stance in saying that the focus should be on the search for peace. So the broader statement is going to be an arm wrestling match. The tendency is for Brazil to refuse to sign and endorse a declaration with a unilateral vision, transforming only Russia into the great villain and without any nuance”, he said.
In this regard, he believes that Brazil can count on India as an ally, with a similar posture. “It would be a surprise if Vietnam does not express views closer to Brazil,” he added.
Depending on Brazil, according to his analysis, it will be a declaration focused on the search for peace and the guarantee of food security, which does not aggravate the crisis that the world is experiencing in terms of food production, and which mainly affects the poorest countries .
“Lula has a lot of authority and is one of the actors that has made an effort worldwide to start peace negotiations without preconditions. Now there is the president of South Africa who has joined in this effort, with Ukraine’s agreement to try to mediate the dialogue. This should throw water at the peace mill, if Lula is successful. I think he has a chance for respectability,” he assessed.
According to Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, the Brazilian government is working so that the final declaration reflects Brazil’s vision regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine and food security in the world.
“As it is a statement about food security and there are effects of the conflict in Ukraine on access to food, an initial reference should be made to the conflict in Ukraine. And, naturally, the Brazilian government negotiates this language, so that it is compatible with the language that Brazil has used on the subject, and has even defended it in the negotiation of resolutions in various international bodies, such as the UN itself”.
Agenda em Hiroshima
On Saturday, the president will participate in the meeting called: “Working to face multiple crises, including food, health, development and gender”. And then he will be present at the session entitled: “Common effort towards a sustainable and resilient planet, including climate, energy and environment”. On Sunday, Lula will be present at the session entitled “Towards a prosperous, stable and peaceful world” and at a flower laying ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
In addition to participating in the summit, Brazil will also have bilateral meetings with Japan, India and Indonesia. The Brazilian government attempts a meeting with the head of France, Emmanuel Macron.
Lula meets Fumio Kishida a few days after Finance Minister Fernando Haddad participates in the Financial G7 in Niigata, Japan, and receives a demand from local businessmen for a trade agreement between the Asian country and Mercosur.
Source: vermelho.org.br