The headline in the Guardian could not have spelt it out more clearly: ‘World leaders rush to congratulate Lula on Brazil election victory’. From North America to Europe to Australia, the sigh of relief that Lula had beaten Jair Bolsonaro in last October’s general election was audible. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was cock-a-hoop, so too French president Emmanuel Macron, who heralded the turning of a ‘a new page’ in Brazil’s history and declared. ‘Together, we will join forces to take up the many common challenges and renew the ties of friendship between our two countries.’
It turns out the friendship Lula values most isn’t with Macron or anyone else in the West but with Xi Jinping. Lula was in Beijing at the end of last week, warmly welcomed by the Chinese president (in contrast to the humiliation endured by Macron a few days earlier), who called the Brazilian leader his ‘good old friend’.
That wasn’t Lula’s only swipe at the West during his time in China
Friends they are, and Lula explained that the purpose of his jolly to China was to strengthen ties.
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