Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva on Tuesday used his address to the United Nations General Assembly to urge world leaders to respond more strongly to intensifying global conflicts, while also warning countries against interfering in the internal affairs of other nations.
Speaking just before US President Donald Trump addressed the gathering, Lula also pushed back against what he described as outside interference in Brazil’s domestic matters, only weeks before elections in his country.
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“Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country,” Lula said. “Nobody will turn us away from this path.”
Lula criticised what he called the UN’s weak response to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and renewed his call for reform of the UN Security Council. He said that in 2025 alone the world “will see the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II” with “trillions of dollars financing a new arms race”.
“The UN is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war,” Lula said. “Its credibility has never been lower.” He said the UN must recover its capacity for dialogue and mediation.
“Concessions to the law of the stronger have surpassed all limits. This is not idealism, but pure realism,” he said. “War is not the continuation of politics by other means; it’s the complete breakdown of politics.”
Lula also spoke about Brazil’s economy and said that “despite the massive tariffs against our economy, this year we will break a new export record”.
Tensions between the US and Brazil have escalated since last year, when the US imposed an initial round of tariffs, citing what Trump called a “witch hunt” trial against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of US President Donald Trump.
Since then, ties between the two countries have become more strained amid growing allegations of foreign interference in Brazil’s October elections, in which Lula is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive presidential term. His main political rival is Senator Flvio Bolsonaro, one of the former president’s sons, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted for an attempted coup.
In his UN speech, Lula combined a call for stronger global action on wars with a warning against foreign interference, while also defending Brazil’s democracy and highlighting trade pressures facing his country ahead of the elections.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
