The thorny path of Lula's diplomacy: from seeking an agreement in Ukraine to restoring Maduro's image

President Luiz Inácio Lula receives 11 of his 12 South American counterparts in Brasilia on Tuesday. He has summoned them for a frank and informal conversation on how to enhance the integration of the southern cone beyond ideological differences. But, after the warm and uncritical reception that Nicolás Maduro gave on Monday, Venezuela and its insertion in the region threaten to monopolize the debate. Lula has fulfilled his promise to return Brazil to the international stage but, to the chagrin of Western diplomacy, insists on defending a profile of his own that in the five months he has been in power has often clashed with the majority positions in the West.

Brazil boasts of being a non-aligned country. That is why, because of his defense of non-interference and peaceful solutions to conflicts and because he is a middle power, the president of Brazil has the privilege of delivering every year the first speech before the General Assembly since 1947 until today. But staying true to that position is increasingly difficult in a world of increasing complexity and highly interconnectedness. It is enough to look at the balances of the South American power (among other traditionally non-aligned countries) to avoid choosing sides in open conflicts such as the pulse between the United States and China or the war in Ukraine.

This is a summary of Lula's Brazil position on some of the main international issues:

Venezuela and Maduro:

For Lula, rebuilding the relationship with Chavista Venezuela, broken by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, was a priority. Shortly after assuming the presidency, he sent to Caracas the diplomat Celso Amorim, who was his foreign minister in the first terms and now, octogenarian, is his main adviser on foreign policy. Amorim met with Maduro and opposition representatives. Both countries exchanged ambassadors.

When receiving Maduro in Brasilia, Lula has avoided mentioning the human rights violations verified by the UN, has largely embraced the Venezuelan's discourse that the polycrisis in his country is the result of a US-led attack and has even said that "sanctions are worse than a war".

Russia-Ukraine:

Brazil has condemned Russia's invasion at the U.N. but has refused to join Western sanctions or send weapons to Ukraine. And some of Lula's statements, such as that the US and the EU are interested in prolonging the war, said to top it off after visiting China and before receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Brasilia, raised blisters. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan went so far as to publicly accuse him of "parroting the propaganda of Russia and China." Before the commotion, the Brazilian qualified his words.

Lula last week declined the invitation to visit Russia that Vladimir Putin conveyed to him in a telephone conversation. "I thanked him for the invitation to attend the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg and replied that I could not go to Russia for the time being, but I reiterated Brazil's willingness, along with India, Indonesia and China, to dialogue with both sides of the conflict in search of peace," explained the Brazilian, who despite the diplomatic capital invested has not yet managed to get his mediation plan of the non-aligned to take off.

Nor has he accepted repeated invitations to visit Kiev although he sent Amorim to both the Ukrainian and Russian capitals. That Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky starred in the recent G7 and gets all the attention displeased the Brazilian. There was no bilateral meeting between the two.

China:

The Asian giant has been Brazil's main trading partner for decades, when it replaced the United States, which held the post for almost a century. Although Lula visited Washington before Beijing, that first trip was of a much shorter profile and duration than China's. Before President Xi Jinping he proclaimed: "Brazil wants the relationship with China to transcend beyond trade." Lula also advocated joining forces with the second superpower to build a new just and equitable international order." Brazil, like its South American neighbors, tries to find that point of balance between the two superpowers in defense of their interests and without disturbing either. But more and more it seems like squaring the circle.

Nicaragua:

A hot spot in the Americas, Daniel Ortega's repression of his opponents has received virtually no attention from Lula, who often shields himself in the principle of non-interference established in the 1988 Constitution. It took weeks for Brazil to break its silence on the banishment of 222 Nicaraguans and the confiscation of property of critics and did so to advocate negotiating with Managua after refusing to adhere, as 55 countries did, to a UN report accusing Ortega of crimes against humanity. Lula often repeats that each country chooses its model and that neither he nor Brazil are the ones to give lessons to anyone. Its diplomats tend to talk much more about interests than values.

El Salvador:

Salvadoran President Nayb Bukele's offensive, which has dismantled gangs at the cost of jailing hundreds of innocent people and subjecting thousands of detainees to serious human rights violations, has not received any attention from the president of Latin America's leading power.

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