BRAZIL: Lula Continues Work on Building a South-South Axis

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 2 2003 (IPS) - First it was South America, with an intense schedule of visits since he took office on Jan. 1, and then came five countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Now Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sights set on five Arab nations, and in January it will be India’s turn.

Lula, with a tour that begins Wednesday and includes a first-ever visit by a Brazilian president to Lebanon and Egypt, is stepping up his personal contacts with his colleagues in an effort to expand trade and political relationships around the world.

It is also a good-will endeavour, which at the same time is building a sort of "axis of the developing South", centred on the alliance between Brazil, India and South Africa launched in June.

Lula’s Middle East visit begins in Syria, and then he will continue on to Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, and ending in Libya on Dec. 9 and 10.

The objectives are primarily trade-related. Lula is travelling accompanied by dozens of business leaders, and Dec. 7-9 will participate in Dubai in an exposition of Brazilian products and a seminar on investment opportunities in Brazil.

The South American giant exported 2.6 billion dollars of goods and services to the Arab nations in 2002 and expects to double that sum by 2006, according to the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Sao Paulo.

But in this trade endeavour in the Arab world, Lula’s aim is to involve all of South America, and has already proposed to his hosts a summit between the two regions, said Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

With that in mind, invited to join the Brazilian entourage is former Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003), who today heads the Commission of Representatives of Mercosur (Southern Common Market), comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

But the tour is also symbolic in nature. Millions of descendants of Arab immigrants live in Brazil, a country which, in ethnic terms, is home to the largest Lebanese population, Argemiro Procopio, international relations professor at the University of Brasilia, told IPS.

Furthermore, the policy of building closer ties to the Middle East puts Brazil on stronger footing, as a counter to the actions of the U.S. government that aim – incorrectly – to associate the Islamic world with the "axis of evil", comments Procopio, author of a book critical of Washington’s strategy.

In his visit to Africa in the first week of November, Lula also highlighted ethnic and cultural ties, as Brazil has the second largest population of blacks, surpassed only by Nigeria, and shares with three of the countries visited – Angola, Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe – the same language and the history of Portuguese colonialism.

In those countries he promised development aid, to open the Brazilian market, to promote investment and technology transfer, and to support the battle against HIV/AIDS as a means of paying "an historic debt" for the millions of Africans that were taken to Brazil as slaves in centuries past.

The Brazilian president also visited South Africa, a partner in the developing South’s strategy, but also another commercial heavyweight.

The two countries plus India are the Group of Three (G3) developing countries that joined forces in defence of the democratisation of international institutions and of terms of trade more favourable to the South.

At the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation, held in September in the Mexican beach city of Cancun, the group expanded to 22, including China and numerous Latin American countries – to stand up to the European Union and the United States and to demand greater liberalisation of the agricultural markets of the industrialised countries.

As their relations intensify, it is an alliance that will create new South-South channels of cooperation, which will ultimately benefit other countries of Africa and South Asia, Lula said during his stop in Mozambique.

The G3 gives its members considerable political weight in the world, but its focus should be economics, and will only be effective if this axis adopts "consistent, achievable objectives," says Geraldo Cavagnari, researcher at the strategic studies centre at the University of Campinas, outside of Sao Paulo.

The group "will be shooting itself in the foot" if it acts in contradiction to the power of the United States and Europe, he told IPS.

According to Procopio, Lula’s diplomatic efforts deserve a top grade for exploring convergences in all regions, but the presidential visits "tend to be limited to intentions," with little follow-up or concrete results.

The proactive foreign policy that Lula seeks must be connected to domestic policies, he said, adding that the current economic recession in Brazil does not favour deepening trade and political relations with its allies.

The reorientation towards the developing South, as suggested by the presidential tours, is not accompanied by diplomatic efforts, says Procopio. "Brazil has more ambassadors in the United States than in all of Africa."

Brazil’s relations with some strategic partners have taken on an important technological component, he acknowledged. Brazil and China have joined forces in a space programme for the construction and launch of satellites, and the Brazilian Aeronautical Enterprise has a factory in China for building small aircraft.