SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Brazil could also be again on the world stage. That’s a minimum of the hope of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who pledges to attempt to reverse his predecessor’s isolationist insurance policies. And as NPR South America correspondent Carrie Kahn experiences, Lula is headed to China, and that makes some within the West nervous.

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: President Lula highlighted Brazil’s political reemergence with a visit final month to the Oval Workplace. Via an interpreter, he informed President Biden Brazil was forsaking its former chief Jair Bolsonaro’s self-marginalization.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA: (Via interpreter) The previous president did not take pleasure in to maintain worldwide relations with any nation. His world began and ended with faux information.

KAHN: He additionally took a fast jab on the former chief, who Lula says spent his days and nights consumed with faux information. Biden joined in, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Sounds acquainted.

(LAUGHTER)

KAHN: Whereas the 2 males bonded over defeating far-right opponents and defending democracy at dwelling, there are cracks within the relationship particularly when Lula preaches neutrality and nonalignment. His refusal to strongly condemn Russia’s invasion or promote ammunition to Ukraine irks the West, and so does his upcoming journey to China. Oliver Stuenkel, a global relations professor at Brazil’s FGV College, says Lula is simply following International Coverage 101.

OLIVER STUENKEL: By no means rely an excessive amount of on one nice energy.

KAHN: And he says having a lot of totally different, highly effective pals provides Lula extra room to barter when coping with the large to the north.

STUENKEL: The overarching dynamic right here is that Brazil desires to inform Washington, look, I bought different choices, which is seen to be one of the best technique to extract concessions from Washington.

KAHN: Lula can also be proposing being a mediator within the Ukraine Warfare. He desires to create a peace membership along with India, one thing he plans to suggest to Xi Jinping. Lula pushed his journey again a day after catching a light pneumonia on Thursday, however the two leaders do plan to fulfill on Tuesday in Beijing.

LULA: (Non-English language spoken).

KAHN: “It is time for China to get its fingers soiled and assist try to discover peace between Russia and Ukraine,” Lula lately informed reporters. Thiago de Aragao, a global enterprise advisor in Brasilia and Washington, D.C., says the thought of Lula as a peace dealer is ridiculous.

THIAGO DE ARAGAO: Brazil is just not match to be a mediator within the conflict in Ukraine. There are dozens of different international locations which have extra circumstances to do this.

KAHN: He says Lula ought to use his worldwide status as a defender of the surroundings and to get China to assist fund preservation. Commerce talks are extra vital on this go to to China, he says. About 30% of all Brazilian exports head to China, its No. 1 buying and selling associate. The U.S. is a distant second. And any U.S. criticism of Lula’s China go to simply ignores these info, says Rodrigo Zeidan, a Brazilian economics professor at NYU in Shanghai.

RODRIGO ZEIDAN: Not all the things is in regards to the U.S.

KAHN: He says Lula has to work on repairing ties with China after the beating the connection took over the previous 4 years below former President Bolsonaro. Etivaldo Gomes hopes Lula can do this.

ETIVALDO GOMES: Bolsonaro has finished nice issues however has finished actually improper issues as effectively.

KAHN: Gomez’s family-owned beef and pork enterprise sends 40% of their exports to China. He is considered one of lots of of businesspeople, politicians and officers on the journey with Lula.

GOMES: I do imagine Lula is doing the precise factor.

KAHN: Although he did not vote for Lula, Gomes praises him for now placing enterprise over politics. Carrie Kahn, NPR Information, Rio de Janeiro.

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