Multiple reports citing anonymous diplomats and others at the G20 summit, which began Monday, shared concern on the part of leftists participating that the incoming administration of American President-elect Donald Trump would effectively freeze any progress on their agendas or invalidate leftist promises in the expected joint statement.
Host country Brazil, led by radical socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is reportedly especially concerned that the joint statement will include no substantive items and the country would fail to advance goals such as Lula’s public demands for some sort of global taxation system on wealthy people.
The G20 is a high-profile affair for Lula, who missed the opportunity to participate at the last global summit of its kind, the BRICS summit in Russia, after suffering a domestic accident and injuring his head. Lula was nonetheless very influential at the summit, reportedly blocking other members from extending an invitation to fellow socialist Venezuela to join BRICS as a “partner.”
During a meeting of G20 finance ministers in July, Lula pressured other member countries to begin a “dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals” at the global level. The Brazilian president has taken on a global leadership role on internet censorship, as well, seeking G20 commitments to combat “misinformation” and “hate speech.” Lula is also expected to aggressively push for commitments from Western states to finance the climate movement and limit carbon emissions.
Radical leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed 15 agreements with genocidal communist Chinese dictator Xi Jinping during an in-person summit in Beijing. https://t.co/BSXF4ZwrWx
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 15, 2023
Outside of Lula’s priorities, Brazil is reportedly facing significant pressure to address the two most prominent wars going on today: the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and the jihadist terrorists of Hamas and their allies. Lula is a reliable Russian ally and stern critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, placing him at odds with many of the Western states in attendance. In contrast, Lula has accused Israel of “genocide” for fighting Hamas and compared operations against Hamas to the Holocaust, outraging Jerusalem. This stance, while shared with rogue nations in attendance such as China, is not popular among the other G20 states.
“Lula knows that Trump’s election compromised the plan to elevate the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro under the presidency of Brazil,” Josias de Souza, a columnist for the Brazilian outlet UOL, observed on Monday. “Reducing the damage depends on Lula’s ability to act quickly to put the signatures of the world’s largest economies on a joint statement that translates into minimal consensus.”
That consensus is unlikely to happen, de Souza wrote and, even if Lula pulls off a miracle, would be largely invalidated once Trump returns to the White House, reorienting America’s foreign policy.
“Their decisions are political commitments. The final statement is a letter of intent. That will be worth little, very little, almost nothing after Trump returns to the White House in January 2025,” he predicted.
“Trump has no appreciation for multilateralism. I don’t see many possibilities of a Trump administration engaging in these issues or showing any interest in them,” an anonymous Brazilian official told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The establishment outlet Politico similarly found a fragmented and frazzled G20, citing European officials who warned the global organization “could become a cacophonic echo chamber of the different blocs, rife with rumors, with everyone just listening to his own voice.”
One anonymous European diplomat described Trump as an “incredibly visible” force at the summit already: “There are new cease-fire talks in Lebanon, Scholz is now calling Putin. It’s like something powerful just happened and we are starting to see accelerating shock waves across the globe.”
Trump is not present at the summit and outgoing American President Joe Biden appears to be having little to no impact on the event. In the absence of American leadership, genocidal Chinese dictator is expected to play a prominent role in the summit, largely upholding Lula’s policy agenda and emphasizing opposition to economic nationalism and support for human rights.
“It’s not only geopolitics that is causing us concern, but also that China’s role, its economic and financial role, is very prominent in many issues,” an anonymous alleged German official told Reuters.
The most vocal ambassador for Trump’s ideas at the G20 this year is not his predecessor but Argentine President Javier Milei, who became the first world leader to meet with Trump since the election during a visit to Florida last week.
“Milei now appears emboldened and is blocking negotiations on the G20 final communiqué, according to two diplomats from G20 nations,” Politico reported. “And he’s found a new friend in [French President Emmanuel] Macron, as the French leader tries to salvage the G20 statement and desperately looks for ways to tank the impending EU-Mercosur trade deal.”
Macron is far from a libertarian, as Milei is, but both share deep concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Macron is reportedly struggling to elevate Ukraine’s importance at the summit in the face of Lula’s resistance, which allows for his cooperation with Milei on that issue.
Reuters reported on Monday that “diplomats drafting a joint statement for the summit’s leaders have struggled to hold together a fragile agreement on how to address the escalating Ukraine war.” Even calling for peace in general has been a source of discord, the outlet relayed.
Bloomberg described Milei as a “gleeful” agent of chaos at the summit in an anonymous rumor-filled report on Sunday.
“Argentine diplomats have thrown a wrench into last-minute talks meant to reach consensus on the communique world leaders are set to sign Tuesday, according to multiple government officials from various G-20 nations,” according to Bloomberg. “They even began backing off support for ideas they had previously signed off on in previous meetings, including a tax on billionaires, the people said.”
Argentina is reportedly insisting on adding an asterisk to a draft joint statement clarifying that Buenos Aires did not approve of some of its contents.
Milei and Lula have an acrimonious relationship stemming from their ideological disagreements. During an interview with Tucker Carlson prior to becoming president in 2023, Milei said he would not do business with Lula.
“Not only would I not do business with China, I won’t do business with any communist,” Milei declared. “I am a defender of freedom, peace, and democracy. Communists have no place there. The Chinese have no place there. [Russian strongman Vladimir] Putin has no place there. Let’s go further: Lula has no place there.”
After his inauguration, in July, Milei published a statement that did not name Lula but appeared to refer to him as an “idiot dinosaur” for his apparent support for socialists in Bolivia.
