A few hours before the approval of the final declaration of the G20, Argentine President Javier Milei reposted on his a controversial video. The montage mocks the coldness with which Lula da Silva, president of Brazil and host of the G20 leadership, received Milei on Monday. The video concludes with a warm hug between the Argentine president and Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former president of Brazil. Milei’s provocation was an isolated gesture in a leadership in which Argentina opted for pragmatism. If at the beginning of the summit the Brazilian delegation feared Argentina’s total boycott of the final declaration, the passing of the hours revealed a low-voltage Javier Milei who bowed to a real politik aimed at obtaining economic resources.
Milei’s speeches had the expected incendiary tone. During the inaugural session, Milei described it as a mistake to try to solve hunger and poverty “with greater state intervention,” in a neoliberal speech that only the Argentine delegation applauded. In the session Global Governance Reform, “the lion” Milei dismantled more: “If it comes to restricting freedom of opinion, don’t count on us. If it comes to transgressing the property rights of individuals through taxes and regulations, don’t count on us. If it comes to inventing privileges based on sex, race, class or any minority, don’t count on us.”
However, Argentina’s reluctant accession to the Alliance against Hunger and Poverty launched by Brazil signaled more moderate diplomatic movements than expected. During the leadership, Argentina closed an agreement with Brazil for the export of gas. On Monday Javier Milei met with Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank. On Tuesday, with Kristalina Georgieva, president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution from whom she expects a million-dollar loan. The meeting with Xi Jinping, president of China, was also marked by the need for financing for Argentina. The only bilateral meeting in Argentina scheduled more out of ideological affinity than economic interest was with Narendra Modi, the far-right prime minister of India. The dependence on Chinese capital and the mediation of French President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to Buenos Aires last weekend to calm Milei’s temper, helped Argentine moderation.
Javier Milei’s loneliness was confirmed by the photo that Claudia Sheinbaum, president of Mexico, disclosed together with Lula, Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, and Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, to stage “United Latin America.” “Milei will be a footnote in the Rio leadership,” a Brazilian diplomat told the newspaper. O Globe, ironically about the footnotes that Argentina forced to include in the final declaration to distance itself from some points.
A new world order
The conservative São Paulo Stadium, Usually critical of the Lula government, he praised the role of Brazilian diplomacy in “a melting world order”. As the world prepares for America First of Donald Trump’s new government, Brazil managed to include for the first time in the G20 the need to reform institutions. international. The final document calls for the inclusion of more members in the UN Security Council and expressly requests seats for Latin America and Africa, and more space for the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. “The challenges that the global community currently faces can only be overcome through multilateral solutions,” the statement states. The shadow of Donald Trump, who despises international organizations and multilateral politics, was present in the negotiations. A few hours before the statement was released, Javier Milei issued an official statement to inform that he disagreed with some points of it, arguing that global governance institutions violate national sovereignty.
The choice of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro as the headquarters of the dome was not coincidental. The iconic building was the scene of the disruptive tropicalist movement in the sixties. Visual artists such as Helio Oiticica or musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil proclaimed within it a tropical truth that dynamited European cultural canons. Tropicalism was based on the anthropophagous manifesto of 1928, which sought “a new perspective” and “a new scale” to disorder the “urban, suburban, border and continental.” “In 2022, Indonesia chaired the G20. Last year, India. This year, Brazil. Next year, South Africa. We will complete four years in a row with presidencies from the global south. The legacy for the world is going to be very visible,” he assures eldiario.es an official source from the Brazilian government who prefers not to be identified.
The G20 declaration, although it is a minimum agreements, has been considered by Brazilian diplomacy as a triumph of the global south. It highlights the “human suffering and negative impacts of the Ukrainian war,” but without citing Russia. On the other hand, it calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and recognizes the “Palestinian right to self-determination” and its own state. On the other hand, the presence of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the meeting and the affinity shown with progressive countries in the region, reinforced the influence of the global southern space.
The large caravan of Chinese immigrants coming from all over Brazil to receive President Ji Xiping and the many Chinese flags visible around the MAM served as a metaphor for the power of the Asian giant. Lula and Xi Jinping had dinner together on Monday night. The bilateral meeting, which aroused misgivings in the American delegation, was the preamble to the vofficial site from the Chinese president to Brazil. After the G20, Jinping will visit Brasilia to strengthen the relationship between both countries. Since Lula visited China for the first time in 2004, the total trade volume between the two countries has multiplied by sixteen. In 2022, it will reach $150 billion. That the Chinese electric vehicle brand BYD bought the American Ford factory in the state of Bahia, closed in 2021, symbolizes the emergence of a new order in which the assembly line fordist based on fossil fuels is collapsing.
Environmental legacy and taxes on millionaires
The final G20 declaration included one of the main proposals of Fernando Haddad, Brazil’s Minister of Economy: the commitment to increase taxes on millionaires. After months of debates and many campaigns of civil society, Brazil managed to include an explicit mention in this regard: “With full respect for tax sovereignty, we will seek to engage cooperatively to guarantee that individuals with ultra-high net worth are effectively taxed.”
Measures against climate warming are also contemplated in the declaration. The text reiterates the emissions reduction goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, emphasizes the need to triple the production of renewable energy before 2030, supports the bioeconomy and defends innovative mechanisms such as the proposal of the Fundo Florestas Tropicais Para Semper (TFFF). , presented by Brazil during the dome. The fund aims to raise $125 billion in international financing for the conservation of one billion hectares of tropical forests in the world.
However, the environmental surprise did not come in the final declaration, but from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Faced with the imminent return of Donald Trump’s climate denialism, Sheinbaum proposed creating a fund to allocate 1% of the military spending of the G20 countries to carry out the largest reforestation program in history. “It would mean releasing about 24 billion dollars a year to support 6 million tree planters who would reforest 15 million hectares (…) With this we would help mitigate global warming and restore the social fabric by helping communities to escape of poverty,” the president defended in the work session Fight against hunger and poverty. After presenting the program Sowing Life implemented by the government of Mexico, Sheinbaum woven an idea that connects the environment, the fight against hunger and peace: “The proposal is to stop sowing wars, let’s sow peace and sow life.”
The G20 ball is now in South Africa’s court. Lula passed the baton to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The return of Donald Trump to power complicates the directions of the G20 in 2025. Trump’s declared anti-globalism and anti-environmentalism will make it difficult to achieve consensus. As if that were not enough, in 2026, the United States assumes the presidency of the group. Waiting for Trump, Cyril Ramaphosa has already guaranteed that he is going to build his presidency based on what Brazil has done, including the replica of the parallel G20 Social forum: “It was a very good and solid foundation and we hope to continue the work done.”
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