Foreign policy of Brazil’s Lula takes shape, irking West; China visit on cards
- Brazil’s new president appears to be reactivating country’s decades-old principle of peaceful non-alignment
- Recent decisions, like allowing Iranian warships to dock in Brazil, raised US and Europe eyebrows; he is expected in Beijing this month
Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has so far shown little concern about defying consensus in the West on foreign policy – even when it comes to dealing with authoritarian governments.
In recent weeks, Lula’s Brazil sent a delegation to Venezuela, refused to sign a UN resolution condemning Nicaragua’s human rights abuses, allowed Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro and flatly refused to send weapons to Ukraine, at war with Russia.
On Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Lula will visit China at the end of the month. “At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Federative Republic of Brazil will pay a state visit to China from March 26 to 31,” spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.
Lula has expressed a desire to resume cordial ties with China in stark contrast with his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Some of his decisions have raised eyebrows in the US and Europe, but experts said he is reactivating Brazil’s decades-old principle of non-alignment to carve out a policy that best safeguards its interests in an increasingly multipolar world.
Lula, who led Latin America’s largest economy twice between 2003 and 2010, is giving signs of wanting to break Brazil’s international isolation after four years under Bolsonaro.
In his inauguration speech in Congress, he announced a new role for Brazil in the world by resuming “South American integration” and the reconstruction of the “high and active dialogue with the United States, the European Community and China”.