April 18, 2023

Brazil and Paraguay's tricky relations with China and Russia

topic:	Peace and Reconciliation
located:	Brazil, Paraguay, China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Russia
editor:	Ellen Nemitz

If Latin America seems to be too far from Asia and Europe to interfere or be affected by political and economic troubles overseas, Brazil and Paraguay have been proving the opposite. In different ways, the two countries’ foreign relations with China and Taiwan, as well as their political involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, have been causing political turmoil in the domestic and international arenas.

Last week, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finally instated an official appointment in China, which was previously postponed due to health issues. The visit to Beijing, in which the head of the most influential country in Latin America met Chinese leader Xi Jinping, had a clear goal of establishing economic deals to boost commercial relations and the Brazilian industry,  which has been weakening. 

The conversations led, among other agreements, to the prospective abandonment of the US dollar in the two countries’ bilateral relations in favour of national currencies. Despite the importance of China for Brazilian exports and economic health, environmental specialists are keeping an eye on the publicised agreement on green development while warning that China has been investing in projects that could potentially threaten Brazilian biomes like the Pantanal.  

In addition to the most conventional goal of a bilateral meeting, Lula’s involvement in foreign affairs  also made him the centre of headlines and of some diplomatic trouble. The latter is due to the leader’s overzealous insistence to take on a world-peacemaker role regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His efforts in this endeavour had already worked once, but maintaining this role in the long term can be difficult to handle when it comes to international relations involving some of the world’s most powerful nations. 

That is not to say that advocating for peace should not be on every politician’s agenda. However, the risk displeasing one of the many factions involved with partisan statements. In this case, Lula may have passed the point of the totally agreeable "that's enough, let's start talking" speech when he chose to openly affirm that the US and the European Union, two important commercial partners and export destinations, could be encouraging the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons. 

In backlash, John Kirby, from the US National Security Council, told the press that Lula was "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts." Peter Stano, the EU's Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, also responded that Russia has been offered "countless possibilities for a negotiated settlement on civilised terms."

Meanwhile, Brazil's neighbour, Paraguay, is about to hold its presidential elections on 30 April - an event that may change not only its own citizens' lives, but also crucially interfere with Taiwan's international support map. The territory, which claims its independence from China, may lose one of its last remaining partners in Latin America soon - a tie maintained uninterruptedly since 1957, based on an economic, political and financial relation. 

The two head candidates running with chances of victory, Santiago Peña and Efraín Alegre, have announced completely different positions. Peña, who runs for the Colorado Party, aims to keep Mario Abdo Benítez' current administration's main values and has reassured Taiwan of his support. Alegre, on the other hand, would rather establish relations with continental China, following the example of Lula in Brazil, who has defended the "one China" concept.

Image by Desert Morocco Adventure

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