Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to leave Peru this morning to attend the Group of 20 summit in Brazil, as Ottawa seeks a place in the rift between the United States and the developing world’s booming economies.
Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum that includes leaders ranging from longtime allies like French President Emmanuel Macron to populist agitators like Argentina’s President Javier Millei.
They are meeting in Rio de Janeiro to try to find common ground on issues ranging from solving global hunger to creating rules around digital currencies.
The summit comes less than two weeks after U.S. voters decided to return Donald Trump to the White House next year. During his campaign, President Trump promised to withdraw the United States from the world organization and raise tariffs on foreign goods.
John Kirton, head of the G20 Study Group, said the forum is a key tool for countries to prepare for Trump’s second term as president.
“What we really need is basically the most powerful leaders of the most powerful countries in the world talking to each other, because they are the ones who know what it’s like to deal with leaders in the same category. That’s because it’s just that,” he said.
Much of Trudeau’s time at the summit will likely include informal talks with various leaders, but he is also expected to hold formal discussions.
On Sunday afternoon, he will participate in an event organized by anti-poverty group Global Citizen to coincide with the summit. As of Saturday evening, Prime Minister Trudeau’s office had not announced which G20 leaders he would meet with.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is also scheduled to attend the summit, which could be her first opportunity to meet directly with Trudeau since taking office. Both countries face a review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement in 2026, and both leaders were elected on a pledge to combat climate change.
“There are concerns about the level of Chinese investment in Mexico, and I think they need to be addressed, but I’m hopeful that we can address them constructively in the coming months,” Trudeau said at a press conference in Lima on Saturday. said. , added that Mexico is a “solid partner” for Canada.
Prime Minister Trudeau is likely to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (commonly known as Lula), the summit’s host.
Kirton said Trudeau is aligned with Lula’s three key priorities for the summit: economic equality, including Indigenous peoples, climate change and clean energy, and poverty and hunger reduction.
Lula added artificial intelligence as his fourth priority. This was championed by Prime Minister Trudeau when Canada hosted the G7 summit in 2018, and Trudeau has said this will be a key focus of Canada’s term as G7 president next year.
“It’s hard to think of a G20 summit where the priorities of the host country and the Prime Minister of Canada were more aligned,” Kirton said. “There are many things we can do to help Lula get what she wants.”
Another point of agreement is Lula’s desire for global governance reforms, which Ottawa has sought at the G7 and the United Nations.
Countries like Brazil say they don’t have an adequate voice in a system created at the end of World War II, when Europe and the United States were in charge of shaping rules governing military affairs, trade and sovereignty. played a dominant role.
Countries in regions like the Caribbean have similar frustrations with financial institutions designed over decades. They complain that they don’t have enough money to invest in infrastructure to cushion the effects of climate change, which is mainly caused by developed countries.
Instead, they pay huge amounts of interest at a time of high inflation. A July 2023 United Nations report found that almost half of the world’s population lives in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education and health care.
Brazil prides itself on being a democracy based on a so-called pragmatic approach to diplomacy, but both countries are under tension.
Lula has climate change as one of her main focuses. Brazil is experiencing massive urban flooding and record forest fires in key regions such as the Amazon, where disputes over natural resource projects are raging.
Neighboring Venezuela’s dictatorship is dealing with economic hardship and state violence against its population, sending waves of refugees to Brazil.
In early 2023, Brazil was shocked as supporters of Lula’s predecessor Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, in what many likened to the events of January 6, 2021 in Washington. Ta.
Since then, Brazil has sought to eliminate misinformation, blocking access to Platform X for five weeks if the company refuses to comply with court orders.
Meanwhile, the country is a member of the BRICS club of emerging economies, where countries such as China and South Africa are increasing their global influence and seeking to end US dominance in areas such as reserve currencies.
Bina Najibulla, vice-president of research at the Asia Pacific Foundation, urged Canadians “not to mistakenly lump Brazil together with anti-Western countries represented by Russia, China, Iran and other BRICS countries.” Ta.
He said Ottawa should instead focus on shared priorities with Brazil, such as free trade, democracy and respect for the world’s rules, which are important for the country where most of the world’s population lives. It also includes moves to make it work better, he said.
“As we enter a more volatile and unpredictable period in international relations, it is important to maintain a nuanced and prudent approach and policy towards emerging and mid-sized economies like Brazil,” she said. Ta.
Najibullah said it was difficult to strike the right balance, but failing to do so would push partner countries like Brazil into the hands of destructive powers such as Russia and China, further fueling anti-Western sentiment. .
“We need to work more proactively to make these global institutions fit for purpose,” she said.
“That’s going to be really difficult under the incoming Trump administration, which has a very limited commitment to multilateralism and international institutions and a strong isolationist bent.”
As at the past two G20 summits, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been under arrest order from the International Criminal Court since March 2023 for his role in the deportation of Ukrainians. Visiting Rio. children.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused tension at the past two summit meetings, but the leaders have called for an “invasion” in 2022 and “the use of force to seek territorial acquisition” in a communiqué in 2023. Somehow we came to an agreement.
Mr. Kiron is interested in whether that war, as well as the Israel-Hamas war that began after the last summit took place in New Delhi, will be mentioned in this year’s joint statement. Lula sparked controversy in February when he compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.
