Brazil focuses G20 summit on fighting hunger

Brazil pushed for concerted action to alleviate hunger as it hosted the G20 summit, a meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies, amid global uncertainty over two major wars and incoming US President-elect Donald Trump.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva welcomed foreign leaders to Rio de Janeiro’s modern art museum on Monday morning and delivered an opening address that focused on fighting food insecurity.

“It is for those of us here, around this table, to face the undelayable task of ending this stain that shames humanity,” Lula told his colleagues. “That will be our biggest legacy.”

Heightened global tensions and uncertainty about an incoming Trump administration ahead of the summit already had tempered expectations for a strongly worded statement addressing the conflicts in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine. Further dimming prospects, G20 officials told The Associated Press that Argentina’s negotiators have started challenging some of the draft language.

That has left experts anticipating a final document focused on social issues like the eradication of hunger — one of Brazil’s priorities — even if it still aims to include at least a mention of the ongoing wars.

“Brazilian diplomacy has been strongly engaged in this task, but to expect a substantively strong and consensual declaration in a year like 2024 with two serious international conflicts is to set the bar very high,” said Cristiane Lucena Carneiro, an international relations professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

After Mr Lula thwarted far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro’s re-election bid in 2022, there was some excitement in the international community at the prospect of the leftist leader and savvy diplomat hosting the G20.

Mr Bolsonaro had little interest in international summits, let foreign policy be guided by ideology and clashed with several leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Lula took office and often quoted a catchphrase: “Brazil is back.”

Under Mr Lula, Brazil has reverted to its decades-old principle of non-alignment to carve out a policy that best safeguards its interests in an increasingly multipolar world, even as his administration’s foreign policy has at times raised eyebrows.

Two officials from Brazil and one from another G20 nation say Argentine negotiators are standing in the way of a joint declaration.

Two of them said that Argentina’s negotiators have raised several objections to the draft, most vehemently opposing a clause calling for a global tax on the superrich — which they had previously accepted, in July — and another promoting gender equality.

Last month, Argentina alone opposed a declaration of the G20 working group on female empowerment, preventing consensus.

While Mr Lula received heads of state with smiles and warm embraces, he and Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei stood at arms’ length while briefly shaking hands. Mr Milei is an avid Trump supporter.

Mr Trump’s win in the US presidential election earlier this month and the imminent return of an “America First” doctrine may also hamper the diplomatic spirit needed for broad agreement on divisive issues, analysts said.

Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, Brazil’s key negotiator at G20, told reporters earlier this month that Mr Lula’s launch of a global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday is just as important as the final statement.

As of Monday, 82 nations had signed on to the plan, Brazil’s government said. It is also backed by organisations including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A demonstration on Sunday on Rio’s Copacabana beach featured 733 empty plates spread across the sand to represent the 733 million people who went hungry in 2023, according to United Nations data, and calling on leaders to take action.

“Brazil wanted a global deal to fight poverty, a project to finance green transition and some consensus over a global tax for the superrich.

Only the first one has survived,” according to Thomas Traumann, a former government minister and a political consultant based in Rio.

Be that as it may, Mr Lula reiterated his call for a tax on billionaires at the start of the leaders’ afternoon session.

“Taxation of 2% on the total assets of superrich individuals could generate funds of about 250 billion dollars per year to be invested in facing up to social and environmental challenges all over the world,” Mr Lula said.