Lula writes article to foreign newspapers and says that ‘there is no alternative to multilateralism’

Amid the crisis triggered with the imposition of tariffs to Brazil by the president of the United States, Donald TrumpPresident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) signed an article published by some of the world’s leading newspapers such as Le Monde (France), El País (Spain), The Guardian (United Kingdom), Corriere della Sera (Italy), Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan), China Daily (China), Clarín (Argentina) and La Journey (Mexico), besides Der Der. Spiegel (Germany).

Titled “There is no alternative to multilateralism”, the text exposes Brazil’s position on what is called the “crisis” of the international order. Without quoting Trump’s tariff, Lula said the World Trade Organization (WTO) is “emptied” and that the multilateral trade system is threatened by the “law of the strongest”.

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In the article, which according to government sources reflects the conceptions of the team of the international affairs advisor Celso Amorim, multilateralism is in crisis because the global order inaugurated with the end of World War II does not correspond to the “new forces” and the “new challenges” that have emerged in recent decades.

“Today’s world is very different from 1945. New forces emerged and new challenges have imposed. If international organizations seem ineffective, it is because its structure does not reflect today,” he said Lula in the article. “The solution to the multilateralism crisis is to refund it on fairer and more inclusive bases,” he said.

Read the full Lula article published in the international press:

The year 2025 should be a time of celebration dedicated to the eight decades of the United Nations (UN) existence. But it can go into history as the year in which the international order built from 1945 collapsed.

The cracks were already visible. Since the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya and the war in Ukraine, some permanent members of the Security Council trivialized the illegal use of force. The omission against genocide in Gaza is the denial of the most basic values of humanity. The inability to overcome differences fosters a new escalation of violence in the Middle East, whose most recent chapter includes the attack on Iran.

The strongest law also threatens the multilateral trade system. Tariffs disorganize value chains and launch the world economy in a high price spiral and stagnation. The World Trade Organization has been emptied and no one remembers the Doha Development Round.

The 2008 financial collapse highlighted the failure of neoliberal globalization, but the world remained stuck to the refinery of austerity. The option to help super rich and large corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens and small businesses has deepened inequalities. Over the past 10 years, the $ 33.9 trillion accumulated by the richest 1% on the planet are equivalent to 22 times the resources needed to eradicate poverty in the world.

The strangulation of state capacity for action has resulted in the discredit of the institutions. Dissatisfaction has become fertile ground for extremist narratives that threaten democracy and foster hatred as a political project.

Many countries have cut cooperation programs rather than redoubled efforts to implement sustainable development goals by 2030. Resources are insufficient, their cost is high, access is bureaucratic and the conditions imposed do not respect local realities.

It is not about making charity, but of correcting disparities that have roots in centuries of exploitation, interference and violence against peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. In a world with a combined GDP of over 100 trillion dollars, it is unacceptable that more than 700 million people continue to starve and live without electricity and water.

Rich countries are the largest historical responsible for carbon emissions, but it will be the poorest who will suffer the most from climate change. The year 2024 was the hottest in history, showing that reality is moving faster than the Paris Agreement. Binding kyoto protocol obligations were replaced by voluntary commitments and funding promises in Copenhagen COP15, which foreshadowed a hundred billion annual dollars, never materialized. The recent increase in military spending announced by NATO makes this possibility even more remote.

Attacks on international institutions ignore the concrete benefits brought by the multilateral system to people’s lives. If today the smallpox is eradicated, the ozone layer is preserved and workers’ rights are still guaranteed in much of the world, it is thanks to the efforts of these institutions.

In times of growing polarization, expressions such as “misleading” have become commonplace. But it is impossible to “disfire” our common life. There are no walls enough enough to maintain islands of peace and prosperity surrounded by violence and misery.

Today’s world is very different from 1945. New forces emerged and new challenges have imposed themselves. If international organizations seem ineffective, it is because its structure does not reflect today. Unilateral and exclusionary actions are aggravated by the collective leadership vacuum. The solution to the multilateralism crisis is not to abandon it, but to refund it on fairer and more inclusive bases.

It is this understanding that Brazil – whose vocation will always be to contribute to the collaboration between nations – showed in the presidency in the G20 last year, and continues to show in the Presidencies of BRICS and COP30, this year: that it is possible to find convergences even in adverse scenarios.

It is urgent to insist on diplomacy and refound the structures of true multilateralism, capable of meeting the cries of a humanity that fears for its future. Only then will we stop watching passive to increased inequality, foolishness of the wars and the very destruction of our planet.

*With information from GOV and Estadão Content
Posted by Carolina Ferreira