Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos França is going to meet Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov at a bilateral meeting this Wednesday (21), on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly.
Lavrov is subject to sanctions from a number of Western countries and had his visa to enter the United States approved at the last minute, amid tensions with the country, taken to an extreme after the outbreak of the Ukrainian War.
There is no planned agenda for Brazilian diplomacy with Ukrainian representatives. Under Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the country has been defending what would be a position of neutrality in the conflict in Eastern Europe – with an eye, in particular, on Russian exports, notably fertilizers and fuels. The position was questioned by Western countries and by the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky.
In addition to Lavrov, France should also meet with the chancellor of Belarus on Friday (23), a dictatorship that automatically aligns itself with the Kremlin.
Meetings are also planned with a number of other countries: Guinea-Bissau, El Salvador, Senegal, Cambodia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Serbia, Bahrain, Suriname, Turkey, Guatemala, Iran, Guyana and Indonesia. The chancellor also has multilateral meetings with counterparts from the League of Arab States, Brics and Ibas (India, Brazil and South Africa), Segib (Ibero-American General Secretariat) and the so-called G4, a group that brings together Brazil, Germany, Japan and India, countries claiming a fixed seat on the Security Council.
The busy agenda contrasts with that of the president, who had four bilateral meetings planned but canceled two (with Guatemalan presidents Alejandro Giammatei and Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic). Bolsonaro should have meetings with the Polish Andrzej Duda and the Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso.
With the president of Poland, Brazilians must sign two agreements: on the Exchange and Mutual Protection of Classified Information and on the Elimination of Double Taxation in Relation to Income Taxes and the Prevention of Tax Evasion and Avoidance.
With less than two weeks to go before the presidential elections, at a time when he appears in second place in the polls, Bolsonaro will spend less than 24 hours in New York. He arrives in town around 7pm and should have a private event later this Monday.
On Tuesday morning, the president heads to the UN, where he will open the speeches of the General Assembly, before having lunch with supporters who traveled in a caravan scheme from other cities in a Brazilian steakhouse. Meanwhile, Michelle Bolsonaro will have lunch with representatives of Alma, the alliance of first ladies she coordinates.
In the afternoon the entourage should return to Brazil.
The Ukrainian War is expected to monopolize the debates at the United Nations event – whether for the pursuit of peace, or for its direct effects, such as the global rise in energy and fuel prices. The UN’s main objective in the discussions surrounding the conflict is to expand the agreement that allows Ukraine to trade grains, also increasing fertilizer exports from Russia amid the food shortage crisis.
This will be the first fully face-to-face edition since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020. That year, world leaders spoke in a completely remote way, without anyone traveling to New York. In 2021, some of them spoke in person, like Bolsonaro, and some sent a video, like Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Remote participation was not planned for this year’s edition. There was, however, an exception so that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, can send a previously recorded video and show it in the plenary. The exception was approved by the General Assembly with 101 votes in favor and 7 against, including Russia, which tried to block the measure. Brazil abstained, voting in favor of a rejected Belarus amendment so that not only Zelensky but any official from a country at war can participate remotely — which was not accepted.
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