Brics summit in Brazil tries to reinvent collective approach to world’s problems

BRAZIL: President Lula rebukes wealthy countries for retreating on climate and trade but bloc is divided and unbalanced

As the US retreats from the international stage, the most powerful political alliance

in the global south has come together in Brazil this week to try to revive and reinvent a collective approach to the world’s problems.

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The summit of the Brics group of nations at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the edge of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro is both a dress rehearsal for the Belém Cop30 UN climate conference in November and a rebuke to wealthier countries that have withdrawn to bunkers, launched missiles and choked off aid to poorer regions.

Opening the Brics conference on Sunday, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spelled out the dire global scenario. Eighty years after the defeat of fascism and the creation of the UN, “we have witnessed an unparalleled collapse of multilateralism”, the Brazilian president told leaders. “Hard-won advances, such as climate and trade regimes, are under threat.” The autonomy of the Brics group was being challenged, he warned.

Donald Trump has slapped hefty tariffs on several Brics nations and threatened even higher penalties if the group continues to seek alternatives to the use of the dollar for international trade.