Rio de Janeiro: Brazil criticized the UN Security Council’s “paralysis” over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as it opened a G20 meeting on Wednesday that saw the international community deeply divided.
Prospects for progress on the burning agenda of conflicts and crises plaguing the planet are bleak as foreign ministers from the world’s biggest economies gather in Rio de Janeiro for the first high-level meeting of the Group of 20 this year.
Brazil’s top diplomat Mauro Vieira said at the start of a two-day meeting attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the explosion of global conflicts shows that international institutions such as the United Nations are not working.
“Multilateral institutions are not properly equipped to deal with the current challenges, as demonstrated by the unacceptable paralysis of the Security Council on the ongoing conflicts” in Gaza and Ukraine, Vieira said, adding that the situation was costing “innocent lives”.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that multilateralism “is in crisis”.
The Security Council failed to respond to Russia’s veto-controlled invasion of Ukraine and struggled to find a response to the Gaza war, with Israel’s ally the United States using its veto power to block calls for a ceasefire, most recently on Tuesday.
Brazil, which took over the rotating G20 presidency from India in December, expressed hope that the group could be a forum for progress on these issues.
But that likely backfired when Lula unleashed a diplomatic firestorm on Sunday by accusing Israel of “genocide” and likening its military campaign in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust.
The comments sparked outrage in Israel, which has declared him persona non grata, and could overshadow any effort to de-escalate the conflict through the G20.
Blinken, who met with Lula in Brasilia on Wednesday before heading to the G20, “made it clear that we do not agree with (his) comments,” a senior State Department official told reporters.
The foreign minister and the Brazilian leader had a “candid exchange” in their more than 90-minute meeting at the presidential palace, the official said.
More than four months after the war in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on October 7 against Israel, which has vowed to wipe out the Islamist group in retaliation, there are few signs of progress towards peace.
The outlook for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which also has G20 members divided, is similarly bleak as the second anniversary of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion approaches.
Despite pressure from Western countries to condemn the invasion, the latest G20 summit ended with a watered-down statement condemning the use of force but not specifically naming Russia, which maintains friendly relations with India and Brazil, among others.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he plans to use the Rio meeting to “challenge Russian aggression” directly to Lavrov, as Britain announced sanctions against six Russian officials last week over the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison.
Meanwhile, Lavrov, who a Brazilian official said will meet Lula in Brasilia on Thursday, hit out at the West for “pumping Ukraine full of guns”.
“Neither Kyiv nor the West have shown the political will to resolve the conflict,” he told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
Blinken, while meeting with Lula, expressed pessimism about the current chances for diplomacy in Ukraine. “Right now, we don’t see the conditions for that,” the U.S. official said.
Brazil also wants to use its G20 presidency to promote the fight against poverty and climate change.
There will also be room for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the gathering – although a Blinken-Lavrov meeting looks unlikely given the soaring tensions.
The pair last met in person at the G20 meeting in India in March 2023.
The G20 group was founded in 1999 and brings together most of the world’s largest economies.
Originally an economic forum, it is increasingly involved in international politics.
A Brazilian government source said that after recent G20 struggles for consensus, the hosts rejected a demand that every meeting produce a joint statement – except for the annual leaders’ summit, which is scheduled for November in Rio.
