Business Day

Brazil’s Lula puts Global South in spotlight

- Lisandra Paraguassu, Leika Kihara and Marcela Ayres Brasilia

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has set his sights on giving the Global South a larger voice in world decisionma­king, using his country’s presidency in 2024 of the G20 group of largest economies.

Lula’s call for reform of global governance and the updating of the eight-decades-old UN system was amplified at last week’s meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro. The push continues this week as G20 finance ministers meet in Sao Paulo.

However, diplomats said it would be an uphill battle to expand the UN security council, where countries with veto powers may pay lip service to the idea but have long delayed discussion­s that would dilute their status.

Lula, a leftist and well-establishe­d voice for the developing world, has set reducing hunger and poverty and curbing climate change as priorities under Brazil’s G20 presidency.

He also wants better representa­tion of the Global South in the multilater­al system, including financial institutio­ns set up after World War 2: the IMF and the World Bank.

“There are those who question the concept of the Global South, saying that we are too diverse to fit together. But there are many more interests that unite us than difference­s that separate us,” Lula said at a conference in November.

Brazil has already taken strides in this direction by insisting that the AU should be a formal member of the G20, citing the example of the EU. The AU will participat­e fully in this year’s G20 on behalf of African nations.

Members of the South American customs union Mercosur have also been invited to attend under the Brazilian presidency.

Bringing more developing nations to the table adds pressure on financial institutio­ns traditiona­lly controlled by Europe and the US to consider proposals such as a Brazilian one to reduce countries’ debts by converting them into investment­s.

At this week’s G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Sao Paulo, the Global South will lead the way in crafting the final statement, expected to mention shifting more money from advanced nations into developmen­t of emerging economies, according to a G7 country official.

“The G20 is becoming the main battlefiel­d between advanced economies and the Global South economies,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“The Global South economies want to take leadership of the G20 forum, particular­ly with the US preoccupie­d with elections and Europe’s economies weak,” the official said.

The rise of the Global South in the G20 has caused some discomfort among the richer countries. But developed nations would have to deal with the new geopolitic­al realities, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

“Brazil has focused on the interests and concerns of the so-called Global South. It is no longer a dialogue just between the great powers,” Borrell said in an interview, adding that this was a positive developmen­t to avoid the division of the world into “the rest against the West.”

“Having the AU at the table is very important. In 20 years, one in four people in the world will be African,” Borrell said.

The G20 was started after the 2007–08 financial crisis to include important emerging economies in talks that had been confined to the G7 industrial­ised nations and has become the main venue for economic and financial cooperatio­n.

The G20 represents about 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of global trade and about twothirds of the world population.

The Global South concept emerged to designate developing, emerging or lower-income countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere, and replace the term “Third World” after the Cold War ended.

 ?? /Reuters/Stringer ?? Representa­tion: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses the Assembly of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 17.
/Reuters/Stringer Representa­tion: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses the Assembly of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 17.

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