2023-05-20 10:12:44
From the first moment that Lula da Silva took over as president of Brazil Just 4 months ago, he deployed an intense foreign policy with the idea of ”returning to the world” after Jair Bolsonaro passed through the Planalto. Rather than returning, Lula’s has more to do with assuming the Brazilian leadership on the international scene, as head of the most powerful country in a region plagued with emergencies, including finance. This role was exercised in the meeting that he had with the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgievawith who “convert” on Argentina’s foreign debt.
The debt crisis of countries of the “About Global” was one of the topics included in the agenda of the Hiroshima Summit 2023, considering the risk What does it mean for the stability of the order that they seek to preserve so much? The subject was written down in the bulky agenda of “economic and financial security”, the third axis in importance that the leaders of the G7 discussed this Saturday, May 20.
However, from the members of the G7 there was no mention of it. On the contrary, it was Lula who tried to make some progress on this issue that is decisive in the levels of poverty and hunger. Meanwhile, this Saturday morning (local time) a source close to the president of Brazil confirmed to PROFILE the meeting that he would hold with Georgieva, scheduled for the afternoon, in which he effectively brought the issue of Argentina’s foreign debt to the table. . “Lula will talk with the president of the IMF about it”they assured.
The Argentine case is sadly famous for being the “biggest loan” granted by the IMF “in its history,” according to what President Alberto Fernández declared. The specter of default and Argentina’s difficulties in dealing with multimillion-dollar maturities in the midst of a historic drought and the resounding fall in reserves is an issue that is not alien to the president of Brazil.
Prior to his trip to Japan, Lula had already anticipated through his Economy Minister, Fernando Haddad, the “need to help Argentina” before the heads of the Economy and Central Bank portfolios of the G7 countries gathered last weekend in the Japanese city of Niigata.
Brazil’s Economy Minister will seek help for Argentina in China
The imminent meeting with Georgieva, meanwhile, will take place within the framework of the revisions of the agreement with Argentina and the recent publication of the report of the General Audit of the Nation that questions the powers of the former Minister of Economy of the macrismo, Nicolás Dujovne, to contract the loan for 44,000 million dollars without the approval of Congress and in the absence of an opinion from the BCRA with an evaluation of the impact on the balance of payments.
Lula’s trip to Hiroshima
Lula’s intense diplomatic activity took him to Hiroshima, the emblematic city of peace and reconstruction chosen by the Japanese prime minister in his crusade for nuclear disarmament. In fact, it was Fumio Kishida himself who invited the BRICS leader to the forum that brings together the seven Western powers, special guests and various international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Lula landed in Hiroshima in a gesture of friendship towards the Western allies, upset with his latest foreign policy moves. Among them, the will to incline Ukraine and Russia to dialogue, criticism of the hegemony of the dollar, the trip to Beijing and the Sino-Brazilian swap agreement, or the reception of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Brasilia.
The head of the Planalto came to the Japanese city to present himself as a “third way” in the face of international affairs that polarize world powers (such as the war in Ukraine). Also as a representative of the “Global South” agenda, a “novel” concept with which industrialized countries usually refer to emerging ones and which was even part of the joint declaration of the US president Joe Biden and the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the conclusion of their bilateral meeting. In addition to debt, Lula also pushed the Latin American agenda in terms of poverty, food security and the effects of climate change.
The G7 Summit in Hiroshima began with the shadow of the atomic bomb on Ukraine
“The G7 failed the Global South”
However, up to now the G7 meeting has left little taste for emerging countries. This was stated by a representative of OXFAM, the international organization that fights against hunger and poverty, present at the G7.
“The G7 failed the Global South in Hiroshima. They failed to cancel debts and to find a solution to the increase in global hunger. They can resolve billions to fight a war but they cannot provide half of what the UN needs for the most critical humanitarian crises,” said Max Lawson, OXFAM’s director of Inequality Policy, in a brief dialogue with this medium.
“If the G7 really wants closer ties with developing countries and gain more support for the war in Ukraine, then asking the leaders of the Global South to travel across the world for a few hours is not going to be enough. You need to pay off your debts and do whatever is necessary to eliminate hunger,” he said.
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