President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) again criticized Israel for the “disproportionate” response to the Hamas attacks and asked African countries for support to reform the global governance system. According to the Brazilian leader, the answer to the current problems “will not come from the racist and xenophobic extreme right.”
The president also stated that politics and diplomacy are the only ways to end the other conflict mobilizing the international community, the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In addition, speaking to African leaders, the president said that Brazil owes the continent 300 years of slavery and that the only way to pay it back is with “solidarity and a lot of love.”
Lula attended the opening session of the annual African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a guest leader from outside the continent. The president received widespread applause at several points in his speech, particularly when he called for a union of the socalled Global South (the group of emerging economies) and demanded that rich nations and economic institutions relax debt repayment conditions to enable the development of the Nations.
As in his other speeches, the president again criticized Israel for its actions in the Gaza Strip during the Africa trip. Since the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, Tel Aviv has carried out daily attacks on Palestinian territory.
“The time has come to rescue the best humanistic traditions of the great leaders of African decolonization. “Being a humanist today means condemning Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians and calling for the immediate release of all hostages,” the president said.
Out there
“To be a humanist, one must also reject Israel's disproportionate response, which killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority of whom were women and children, and which resulted in the forced displacement of more than 80% of the population,” he added added.
Lula also again defended the creation of a Palestinian state that would be recognized and a full member of the United Nations. And he also called again for a reform of the international political system, especially the UN Security Council, so that it would be more representative and without countries with veto rights.
At this point he criticized the committee's paralysis in connection with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“[Precisamos] a strengthened UN with a more representative Security Council, without countries with veto power and with permanent members from Africa and Latin America. Two years ago, the war in Ukraine revealed the Council's paralysis. “In addition to the tragic loss of life, the consequences are being felt around the world in the prices of food and fertilizer,” he said.
“There will be no military solution to this conflict. The time for politics and diplomacy has come,” he added.
In the same vein, the president also sharply criticized rich countries and called for support for “urgent reform” of the global governance system. Brazil wants to use its G20 presidency to discuss changes in bodies such as the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and also the World Bank.
“The Global South is becoming an inevitable part of the solution to the greatest crises afflicting the planet, crises resulting from a model of wealth concentration and which particularly affect the poorest, including immigrants,” he explained.
“The alternative to the evils of neoliberal globalization will not come from the racist and xenophobic far right. Development cannot be the privilege of a few. Only an inclusive social project will enable us to build prosperous, free, democratic and sovereign societies. “It will be neither stability nor starving democracy and unemployment,” he added.
But the bulk of his speech was to signal a more productive partnership with the African continent. Lula vehemently condemned the conditions for paying off the debts of African nations, which hinder development.
China, midland
The PT chief said 60 countries, many of them in Africa, were on the verge of bankruptcy and were spending more resources on paying off foreign debts than on more important expenses such as health and education.
“We must look for solutions to transform unfair and unaffordable debts into tangible assets such as highways, railways, hydroelectric power plants, wind and solar energy farms, green hydrogen production and energy transmission networks. We must follow the development of new technologies step by step. “Step by step,” he explained.
As shown by SheetThe Lula government is working on a plan to renegotiate African countries' debts to Brazil. The aim is to use this as a trump card during the G20 presidency to oblige rich countries and financial institutions to follow the same path.
In the end, the president spontaneously called for a stronger partnership with the continent to help countries harness what he called unexplored potential, citing agriculture as an example. He said that Brazil had ignored the African continent for many centuries.
And he said he now wanted to share “everything Brazil has” with African nations.
“Brazil has always looked at the world without seeing the African continent. Brazil has been ruled for centuries with the United States and Europe in mind, and Brazil hasn't even seen South America, let alone the African continent. When I took it “I decided during my presidency in 2003 to bring Brazil closer to the African continent,” he explained.
“The Atlantic Ocean is not an obstacle to our approach, it is a gift from God to our approach […]. I have returned to lead the country, I have returned and I want to contribute to the African continent. I want to share everything, whether a lot or a little, that Brazil has with African countries, because we have a historical debt from 300 years of slavery that we can only pay with solidarity and a lot of love.”
Lula also praised the performance of the Brics states, a bloc that originally included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but was expanded last year. He said it was an “indisputable step forward” in consolidating the bloc as the main space for the articulation of emerging markets.
The Brazilian president is on a fiveday trip across the African continent. The first stop was in Cairo, Egypt, where Lula visited the pyramids with First Lady Janja, had events with Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah alSisi and spoke at the Arab League headquarters.
Lula then traveled to Ethiopia, where he was received by controversial Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize but who is now waging a war against rebels and accused of genocide.
Lula also had a series of bilateral meetings in Addis Ababa on the same day, but these were canceled because his interlocutors had logistical problems or were called for an emergency meeting due to the escalation of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shteyyeh the following day on the sidelines of the African Union summit to discuss the situation in Gaza.
During the meeting, Lula was the fifth official to speak. When he was introduced by African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki, heads of state and delegates applauded.
In his speech, Faki criticized Israel for the “unprecedented attacks” on the Gaza Strip.