President Jair Bolsonaro will not attend the G20 summit, scheduled for next week in Indonesia. This gesture is unprecedented among Brazilian presidents and marks a sad end for their government.
The meeting includes on its agenda some of the major international themes, in a group considered to be a guide to the planet.
In addition to Bolsonaro, the only confirmed absence is that of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, who will be subject to severe restrictions if he chooses to make the trip to Bali. There is also the possibility that the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will not participate.
There are no pictures. The controversy in the international community has reached such an extent that the traditional “family photo” will not be taken this year.
Western heads of state warned that they would not see the photo if any Russian representatives were in Bali. In Putin’s absence, he will be represented by Chancellor Sergei Lavrov, who insists that he will go and wants to appear in a final official photo.
Who will represent the Brazilian government? In the case of Brazil, the presence of Chancellor Carlos Franca has been confirmed. Reported sources in the high command of national diplomacy UOL News That Bolsonaro will not go. Although some key voices among his aides have tried to convince him of the importance of the presidency’s institutional involvement. But in reality Bolsonaro chose to leave.
I also strongly influenced the fact that the president realized that no other government wanted to hold meetings with him and that the focus of the international community even with the inauguration of the elected president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT). No bilateral meetings were scheduled.
What does Bolsonaro’s absence represent? After confirming his decision not to travel, foreign diplomats point out that his absence reinforces Bolsonaro’s international irrelevance and would be a “requiem” for a government that dwarfed Brazil in the world.
Even within Itamaraty, his absence is a sign that he did not understand the position she took in 2019 and that having a Brazilian president at the top had nothing to do with election result🇧🇷
For foreign diplomats, Bolsonaro’s absence is a mixture of relief and “pity” in the face of the collapse of foreign policy in a country that has served as a reference to the world.
In 2021, at the G-20 summit in Rome, Bolsonaro experienced an international pariah, ignored by other leaders and a completely empty agenda. Recently, in New York, he once again saw his passing through the United Nations General Assembly marked by the absence of high-level meetings, even missing the meeting he was going to have with Antonio Guterres, the organization’s Secretary-General.
Other absences. So far, Bolsonaro has also not confirmed his participation in the Mercosur summit, which is scheduled to be held in Uruguay in three weeks’ time. Bloc has never been a priority, and Brazil’s political absence in the past four years has weakened integration projects.
Qatar’s invitation to the Brazilian president to attend the World Cup, which will be held at the end of this month, has not yet been answered. It is common for the head of state who eventually reaches the final to be present in the game. In Bolsonaro’s case, this final will take place a few days before the end of his term.
At the United Nations, next Monday, a Saturday that was to be for months with the government Jair Bolsonaro To assess its human rights policies, promises to turn into a series of complaints against the administration that seized power in 2019 and which, within four years, has dismantled an important part of the structures defending basic rights in the country.
For Brazilian diplomats, the end of Bolsonaro’s government abroad is accompanied by a sense of relief and revenge. But, above all, with the perception that the international community misses Brazil.
