Click to see the full-size image
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was an attempt by the French president to obtain the support of his Brazilian counterpart in favour of Ukraine. However, although French-Brazilian bilateral ties were advanced during Macron’s visit to Latin America’s biggest country on March 26-28, Lula reinforced his country’s neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. At the same time, disputes over the Mercosur and European Union agreement—another point of divergence between the two leaders—also showed no progress.
Macron and Lula were photographed smiling in the city of Belém, where they agreed to raise more than $1 billion for sustainable economy projects for the Amazon, both in Brazilian territory and in French Guiana, a French territory in South America. However, an important part of the agenda between both leaders kept far from the photographic lenses related to the conflict in Ukraine and positions on Russia, an issue in which Macron has been particularly harsh in recent weeks.
The French president hopes that the Ukrainian issue will be prominent on the agenda of the G20, whose temporary presidency falls to Brazil. The problem for the Élysée Palace is that Lula has consistently highlighted the need for a peaceful solution to the conflict and supports negotiation dialogues between Kiev and Moscow, something the former refuses to do despite losing the war.
Brazil’s position in relation to the Ukrainian conflict highlights the country’s diplomatic tradition of not taking sides but adopting a pragmatic stance. The difference between Macron’s position and that of the Brazilian president is evident, especially in relation to Russia. It also indicates the sensitivities of France, a NATO member, and how Europe has lost geopolitical space in favour of American interests. While France, due to its position in Europe and NATO, has become more involved in conflicts and, in fact, wants to escalate conflicts, Brazil has adopted a more distant stance, seeking a peaceful and dialogued solution to problems.
Regarding the trade pact between Mercosur, a South American trade bloc, and the EU, it was not expected that Macron would surprise the European bloc itself and the French by announcing a radical change in his position. France remains firmly opposed to an agreement, and from Brazil, Macron sent the signals to French businesses that although there is a resumption of an important relationship and strengthening ties in economic matters, there is not a change of position in relation to the Mercosur-EU agreement.
The impact of Macron’s visit to Brazil on French domestic politics cannot be overlooked. Notably, the French president faced criticism and significant opposition, which somehow corroborated the idea that his interests were not for France but for French oligarchs. Due to domestic considerations, Macron once again opposed the agreement between Mercosur and the EU.
As the French agricultural sector lobby is very well organised, they put pressure on the French government to resist an agreement with Mercosur. This indicates that, despite expectations of a possible position change, both countries’ interests have been maintained. Indicatively, Macron’s statements about the need to “start negotiating from scratch” prove there are obstacles to the agreement. As Lula has already said, the reason the agreement was not signed was not due to a lack of trying or fault of the Mercosur countries.
Even so, the visit may have reinforced the French president’s belief that he is the leader of Western countries in the eyes of the global south, given the global north’s lack of leadership that can promote a multilateral agenda.
For Lula, the achievements of the meeting with Macron were different. A good indicator that Macron’s visit was a success is that there was not any major criticism from the opposition. This is seen with the fact that some strong opposition leaders even tried to take advantage of the visit.
Although the impasse over Russia-Ukraine and Mercosur-EU is the main reason for tensions in Brazil’s relationship with France, it does not jeopardise the prospect of building a bilateral partnership. After a period of tension in bilateral relations during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, the French leader’s visit marks the resumption of diplomatic relations and the continuation of an already established partnership, exemplified by the signing in 2008 of the Submarine Development Program (PROSUB).
Nonetheless, even though relations are thawing, Macron failed to bring Lula closer to the Western position on the Ukraine issue since it is not in Brazil’s interest and, for that reason, does not want to put the issue prominently on the agenda at the G20. Alternatively, despite the disagreement regarding Ukraine, Macron’s visit to Brazil served Lula as it brought him closer to one of his foreign policy objectives, consolidating himself as a respected international leader, an image that the French president himself has lost, especially after hinting towards a NATO intervention in the war in eastern Europe.
it is interesting that the rothschild asset macron, who is very unpopular at home and has had 6 years of anti-macron protests known as the yellow vests and countless strikes against his political, governmental, immigration and economic policies, still has the courage to go abroad and spread good advice to other countries. france is a doomed country, the second worst in europe after sweden and germany is just slightly behind. it’s all because of the rothschild cabal ruling eu.
brazil and russia were the founding members of the successful brics alliance. there is absolutely no way on earth for france or the usa or whoever to destroy this very stable alliance. so lula de silva did the right thing. our planet is now multipolar.
oh successful brics alliance – that’s funny. india is in undeclared war with china, because of the geopolitics rivalry and russia is in forced marriage with china, because otherwise the u.s. sanctions would kill that old senile idiot putin and his puppet show. now tell me what is really brics about. they are random countries with incompatible leaders who temporarily joined that funny laughable club to counter the globalists and the u.s. elites.
in the hypothetical case that the world would not burn in a nuclear war this year or in near future, the prospect of brics countries is quite poor. china, once not busy with taiwan would open fire on india because of that border disputes. once this war starts, pakistan, who is heavily supported by china would happily join on china’s side.
india would probably use nukes on pakistan so now it would be about muslims a bit more. russia would call for peace, of course, because of that senile putin/lavrov imbeciles, meanwhile iran would take the opportunity and attack india with nukes as well. this would cause israeli response, israel (with the british support) would attack iran and syria with his own nukes and this would cross russian red lines and we have ww3 scenario again, even without the u.s. hegemon involved.
you fool. big world powers like china or india wont fight a full scale war, just regional wars. even your simplified approach in world politics is so wrong.
are you retarded? it was not a forced marriage, the trade with china is a win win for russia. in fact, even if the sanctions are lifted one day – the trade with china will continue to grow. and the border ‘dispute’ with india is overrated, and they recently came to an agreement on that, so stop bitching.
u.s.a put their chips in india to try to contain china but won’t succeed. brics are the future and they cannot compete directly against the world hegemon so they created brics alliance a non aligned version of the region economic blocks that usa empire created to rule over their military regions. first were military regions and after was european union, mercosur, asean and so on so on.
just in pappers brazil is sovereign. the industry and finances in brazil are completely controlled by foreign capital, and so on all their markets. brazil will return to the right after lula. bolsonarism and their followers will not allow the left to win the next elections so brazil will be back on track of the big world hegemon after lula da silva.
the gerontophile homosexual, i.e. macron, made fun of himself and took a blow from the president of brazil, who is a balanced man and who realizes that ukraine lost the war and does not want to get involved in prolonging the conflict that causes many victims and material losses, more elected from ukraine
the sad true is that macron doesn’t represent himself, but he was more or less chosen from the database as a professional product representing soros/rotschild/zuck interests. and french people were so stupid they preferred him to le pen. but most people are dumb so it is not surprising me at all that france is not exception to the rule. obama was the same product. merkel is another example. and so on and so on.
macron just went to brazil to get a bbl, so that his husband at home has some fun!
macron is a player, the french first were occupied after napoleon and then during world war two, after wwii were completely overtaken by the western civilization and the big new big hegemon u.s.a who have disagreements with the old hegemon british empire. the childrens of france 🇫🇷 born under u.s.a empire who put their guy in charge of france. even general de gaulle was a puppet of u.s.a empire what you can expect macron the player with the old wife.
at least if macron were smart enough should take a young wife just like p.o.t.u.s’trump’ who grab woman’s by their pus*y. macron cannot even play within their own game.
countries like france that are not only financially invested in the war in ukraine but also are taking part in the hostilities need to accept their defeat. they have a hand in the destruction of ukraine all because they wanted to hurt russia which makes them responsible for everything that has happened as a result.