In Brasília, at the first ministerial meeting of the year, Lula spoke about the 47th American president who took office this Monday (20). “There are people who say that Trump’s election could cause problems in global democracy. Trump was elected to govern the United States and I, as president of Brazil, hope that Trump manages well, so that the American people improve and that the Americans continue to be Brazil’s historic partner, because For our part, we don’t want a fight. Not with Venezuela, not with the Americans, not with China, not with India, not with Russia. We want peace,” said the president.
The tone is very different from that of November last year. On the eve of the American election, Lula said that he was rooting for the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, thinking about democracy, and that “Nazism and fascism were returning with a different face”. Lula was not invited to the Republican’s inauguration. Brazil was represented by ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viott at the ceremony.
With Trump as president, Brazilian diplomacy will have to balance itself amid commercial and political disputes between the two largest world powers. On the one hand, China, the destination for the majority of Brazilian exports and which has been increasing its investments in Latin America. On the other, the new American government which, under Trump, seeks to regain the nation’s historical influence on the American continent.
Itamaraty preaches serenity. There are those who advocate a more careful analysis of the impacts of Trump’s first acts, before any more forceful demonstration. The assessment is that the initial acts should set the tone for the second term.
So far, Lula leans towards the so-called “Global South” – a reference to emerging countries, whose main protagonist is China. Occupying the presidency of the BRICS, Brazil defends a more “inclusive” global governance, and guidelines such as the use of other currencies – in addition to the dollar – in international trade.
Meanwhile, President Lula’s government continues without a direct line to the White House, maintaining a formal diplomatic relationship,
very different from Javier Milei’s Argentina, which attended Donald Trump’s inauguration. There are doubts about the impacts of political relations on the economic sphere. One of the biggest concerns of the Brazilian government is the promised “tariff” on imports. The United States is Brazil’s second largest trading partner.
The energy issue also generates uncertainty. Trump, for the second time, withdrew the US from the Paris agreement through an executive order, signed among 77 others on the first day, hours after his inauguration. Trump also promises to break with Biden administration policies that encouraged the use of renewable sources.
With COP30, scheduled for November in Brazil, in Belém (PA), the question remains about how much these measures could weaken global efforts to combat climate change.
