Host Brazil focuses G20 summit on fighting hunger amid wars

G20 leaders take part in a Family Photo at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were not present for the photo. —The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP

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

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva welcomed foreign leaders to Rio de Janeiro’s modern art museum 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 Lulathwarted far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro ‘s reelection bid in 2022, there was some excitement in the international community at the prospect of the leftist leader and savvy diplomat hosting the G20. Bolsonaro had little interest in international summits, let foreign policy be guided by ideology and clashed with several leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron. Lula took office and often quoted a catchphrase: “Brazil is back.”

Under Lula, Brazil has reverted to its decades-old principle of nonalignment 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.

Objections to the draft

Two officials from Brazil and one from another G20 nation say Argentine negotiators are standing in the way of a joint declaration. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. 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 Lula received heads of state Monday with smiles and warm embraces, he and Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei stood at arms’ length while briefly shaking hands. Milei is an avid Trump supporter.

Trump’s win in the U.S. 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 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 organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A demonstration 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, Lula reiterated his call for a tax on billionaires at the start of leaders’ afternoon session.

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

US President Joe Biden attended the summit after a stop in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. He also traveled over the weekend to Manaus, a city in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. It was the first time a sitting American president set foot in the Amazon.

The White House announced Sunday a $50 million contribution to the Amazon Fund, the most significant international cooperation effort to preserve the rainforest, after a prior $50 million. Biden’s administration announced plans last year to give $500 million.

White House officials have said Biden also would use the summits to press allies to not lose sight of finding an end to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza and to keep up support for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s invasion. Looming large on Monday was news of Biden’s decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range US missiles to allow that country’s military to strike more deeply inside Russia.

Resolve wars in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine

During the summit, Biden pointed to his soon-to-end administration’s efforts on global hunger and poverty. He urged counterparts to redouble efforts to ease those ills, as well as to resolve wars in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine.

“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should, as well,” Biden said.

Biden had intended to be part of the G20’s group photo, a set piece at most international summits, but it occurred earlier than scheduled, according to a senior administration official, who was not authorized to comment publicly. He missed it, along with Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Any commitments Biden makes at the G20 may be overturned by the next White House administration. Trump’s election may also cause some countries to look toward China as a more reliable partner. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with China’s Xi Jinping on Monday, the first meeting between British and Chinese leaders since 2018, seeking to repair relations with Beijing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the summit’s most notable absentee. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended the meeting.

In a plaza a few blocks away, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to denounce the killings in Gaza, some beating drums and chanting “Long live the fight of the Palestinian people!” Among them were two rabbis who traveled from New York. Israel isn’t a G20 member.

“We are trying to get the message to the G20, to the leaders of the world,” said Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, from the Neturei Karta International movement. “It is so critical. We are witnessing the mass murder of people and it is being perpetuated in the name of my religion, of Judaism. We cannot be silent, we dare not be silent.” —AP