Notícias
Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting – Rio de Janeiro, February 21st 2024
Wednesday, 21st February 2024 [14h00 – 18h30]
Welcome remarks [14h00]
Distinguished Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
Representatives of International Organizations,
Heads of Delegation,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like, first of all, to welcome you to Brazil for this year’s first G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Rio de Janeiro is a special place in the heart of all Brazilians. I hope that your schedules allow you some time to visit this beautiful city during your stay in the country.
As announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the New Delhi Leaders’ Summit last September, Brazil’s G20 Presidency focuses on three main priorities: 1) fight hunger, poverty and inequality; 2) sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions; and 3) the reform of global governance institutions.
In this meeting, the Brazilian G20 Presidency proposes concentrating on the third priority set by President Lula: global governance reform.
Before we continue, please allow me to reiterate the importance Brazil attaches to the promotion of social inclusion, the fight against hunger and poverty and the achievement of sustainable development, which will be further discussed in future meetings.
In particular, I would like to call on all of you to give special attention and support to the ongoing discussions aimed at launching a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, a key priority of our G20 chairship. My country would like to count on the support of all members, guest countries and international organizations so that at the Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Summit, in November, the twenty largest economies in the world can announce an effective contribution to eradicate hunger in the world.
Distinguished Colleagues,
This meeting will have two agenda items. Today we will discuss the G20’s role in dealing with the ongoing international tensions and tomorrow we will delve into the topic of global governance reform.
Let us now start session one. According to G20 practice, troika members will speak first, followed by other G20 members, by guest countries and by international organizations. In each of these groups, the floor will be given in alphabetical order, according to each country or organization’s name in English.
I ask for everyone's collaboration to observe the five-minute time limit for interventions by G20 member countries and three minutes for invited countries and international organizations.
I will now speak in national capacity.
Distinguished Ministers and representatives of International Organizations,
The G20 is an international forum of increasing relevance. Today, issues of the most diverse nature are part of the group’s discussions.
As we all know, the United Nations was created as the central organization to deal with peace and security issues. Meanwhile, G20 has been designed as privileged forum for discussions on financial and development issues, with both legitimacy and tools to deal with such challenges.
Given the situation we are experiencing, however, this group is today possibly the most important international forum where countries with opposing views manage to sit together and have meaningful conversations, still unencumbered by entrenched and rigid positions that have been preventing advances in places like the Security Council.
In our view, G20 can and should play a key role in fostering the reduction of international tensions and advancing the sustainable development agenda.
Dear Colleagues,
Brazil is deeply concerned by the state of international affairs regarding peace and security. By some accounts, we have reached a record high number of ongoing conflicts worldwide - over 170 - while geopolitical tensions are also on the rise.
Brazil occupies a space in the world that allows us to discuss the ongoing international tensions in any forum. Our positions on cases now under discussion in G20, in particular Ukraine and Palestine, are well known and have been made public in the appropriate fora, such as the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
Multilateral institutions, however, are not equipped to deal with today´s challenges, as demonstrated by the unacceptable paralysis of the Security Council regarding ongoing conflicts. This state of inaction directly implicates in further loss of innocent lives.
Brazil cannot accept a world in which differences are addressed by the use of military force. A significant portion of the world made a clear option for peace and does not accept to be entangled in conflicts driven by foreign nations. Brazil rejects the pursuit of hegemonies, old or new. It is not in our interest to live in a fractured world.
Within our region, a clear example of different approaches to peace and security comes from the fact that the North is tied around a military alliance, whereas the South is covered by several layers and zones of peace and cooperation, such as ZOPACAS, OPANAL, denuclearized Africa under UN Resolution, the African Union itself, and many others examples.
The extraordinary situation in which the entire Southern Hemisphere of the planet chose to remain denuclearized is little highlighted under the predominant narrative.
The successful cases of peaceful cooperation from Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Oceania must be heard in relevant fora with special care and attention.
Dear colleagues,
Without peace and cooperation, it will remain extremely difficult to achieve the promised large-scale mobilization of resources to address the existential threats we face, in particular fighting poverty and inequality and protecting the environment.
It is not sensible nor humane for the world to far exceed US$ 2 trillion in military expenditure every year. As a comparison, the country programmable aid component of ODA remains stuck around the mark of US$ 60 billion per year - less than 3% of military expending. Climate change disbursals under the Paris Agreement struggle to reach the still insufficient figures of US$ 100 billion a year, therefore less than 5% of military expenditure.
If inequality and climate change are indeed existential threats, I cannot shake off the feeling that concrete actions are sorely lacking.
We have pressing issues under development and the fight against hunger, poverty and inequality; we have challenges of colossal proportions under climate change and the environment; we hold a collective responsibility to steer the world towards prosperity. These are the wars we must wage in 2024.
In all these endeavors, it is of critical importance to have a modernized, effective and efficient system of multilateralism, guided by norms and principles strictly followed by all countries, with the United Nations at its core.
We cannot ignore the fact that global governance needs a revamp. Our differences must be handled under multilateralism and the UN, using as methods dialogue and cooperation, and never armed conflict - matters to be further discussed tomorrow in the session dedicated to the reform of global governance.
As the G20 proceeds into the discussions of its role in face of ongoing international tensions, I encourage all countries to begin by reiterating their commitments under the UN Charter and by publicly rejecting the resource to force, intimidation, unilateral sanctions, espionage, social media mass manipulation and such other measures inconsistent with the spirit and rules of multilateralism as means of dealing with international affairs.
Brazil strongly encourages all members to shift the focus to finding concrete answers, by seeking common ground and adopting trust-building measures. We speak out of our own experience, not idealism. Brazil is ready to contribute with ideas and concrete proposals in that direction.
Thank you very much.