Jair Bolsonaro, head of state representing Brazil, was isolated at the last G20 summit in Italy. It’s no use thinking about labels or “shooting the messenger”, as they say in English. This can be seen in the images and in the comparison with other agendas of international leaders present. What can be debated is whether Bolsonaro was isolated by others, or isolated himself. The answer, unfortunately, is that both of these things probably happened, taking Brazil along with it.
Some people might question the importance of such an event. And it is a fair question that deserves an answer. The G20 summit matters in two spheres. The first is formal. It is a very high level international forum, with the twenty largest economies in the world, more guests representing the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, among others. Issues of global concern, such as post-pandemic economic recovery, are debated and, to a large extent, decided there.
The second importance is that of occasion. It’s very convenient to have so many big leads in the same place and at the same time. In addition to multilateral discussions, such as those mentioned above, it also allows for a full agenda of bilateral meetings. This was debated about a year ago in the column “The loss of a UN General Assembly that will have no assembly”. At the time, the damage of an assembly made only virtually, as was the G20 summit in 2020, whose headquarters was Riyadh.
Agendas and meetings
In 2021, the summit went back to being in person. An exceptional circumstance for an extensive diplomatic agenda. For example, Joe Biden, President of the USA, arrived in Rome on the evening of October 28th. Between October 29 and 31, in addition to multilateral commitments, he had bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In addition to the four meetings, Biden also had a meeting with European leaders to discuss the Iranian nuclear program and even an audience with Pope Francis. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nationalist and conservative, had meetings with Mario Draghi, Macron, German Angela Merkel, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and also Pope Francisco. One more example? How about Boris Johnson?
The conservative British Prime Minister, in parallel with the G20, met Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Canadian Justin Trudeau, Mario Draghi, Ursula von der Leyen and Macron. In other words, all those mentioned met with five or six international leaders. And Bolsonaro? Only one, with Mathias Cormann, the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, a person without decision-making power.
Bolsonaro also had a formal reception by Draghi, which is not the same as the aforementioned meetings. Even at the reception, the tone was cold, and the Italian didn’t give up a handshake. Probably a symbolic reprimand for the fact that Bolsonaro says he didn’t get vaccinated against the covid. Overall, it is hard to believe that, with over 90% of the world’s GDP and 80% of all international trade brought together in one place, there were no priorities or opportunities to be explored or created.
salon conversations
Again, what has been pointed out here is a fact. Unquestionable. Bolsonaro’s international agenda is minimal. Worse, the president of one of the biggest economies and biggest markets in the world doesn’t attract much more attention than a few parlor words without ambitious agendas. In the anteroom of the G20, Bolsonaro was little sought after. And, when it was, such salon words are not used very much. While talking to Erdogan, Bolsonaro seemed more concerned with making campaign-oriented videos for his constituents.
In another brief conversation, on a sofa, Bolsonaro exchanged a few words with the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, complaining about the treatment he received by the opposition and the fact that he was called a genocide. Tedros is also not a figure with decision-making power, much less on the terms used by opponents or critics of the current government. And if he is to meet a symbolic figure, the pope has received a Hindu leader, but not a Catholic from a country of tens of millions of believers.
Again, there is no use in skewed videos on social media, ideological passion or favorable coverage by some journalists. The crystal-clear fact is that the president of Brazil, a presidential country, went to a summit filled with international heavyweights and didn’t discuss anything, with anyone. No advances, no market openings, no deals for anything. Not even an appointment for a future visit, for further deepening in any relationship whatsoever.
This is even more shocking when one thinks that Bolsonaro has been president for three years, a period shared with other leaders. And nobody, ever, when seeing the Brazilian president, acts like someone who finds an old acquaintance, an ally, a partner. On the contrary, the embarrassment is visible on some occasions, for the loss of the whole of Brazil. Foreign policy is a public policy tool. It serves to expand business for Brazilians, improve the population’s well-being and the country’s development.
Pariah
And Brazil has, or would have, a lot to offer and receive. If a country like this has become isolated, it is necessary to ask why. And the reason is your current government, and your current ruler. Bolsonaro is reaping the fruits that he planted himself. “Let us be an outcast,” his former chancellor has said, in an almost prescient tone. It is not a “conspiracy of the world left” to isolate him. Modi, Johnson, Widodo, Morrison, among others, wouldn’t give a damn about that, for example.
They do care, however, for the government’s stance on the pandemic, one of the ten countries with the most deaths per million inhabitants in the world, more than four times the world average. For the presepa with the plane that would seek vaccines in India, as well as the investigation into an alleged purchase of the Indian Covaxin. They also appreciate the fact that the Boris Johnson government had to publicly contradict the Brazilian government on the content of the conversations between the two leaders in New York, in September.
These are just a few recent examples. Leaving aside the labels, whether “myth” or “extreme press”, this is the substance. Nor is it “to cheer against”, it is attesting to the reality of an isolated government in a crucial period for the international community, which is beginning to emerge from the suffocation of the pandemic. The agendas don’t lie and the videos posted may even cheer the electorate, but the world is bigger than Brasília’s playpen. There remains tourism with the resources of the treasury to disguise the embarrassment that was the G-20 for the Brazilian government.
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