Brazil's Lula favors “dialogue” with Putin, underlining the West’s failure to secure support in the “Global South”
It’s time to start playing ‘hardball” with the fence-sitting countries of the “Global South”
Adapted from The Trenchant Observer, January 6, 2023.
Mauro Vieira, the new foreign minister under Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (“Lula”) has announced that “Brazil is back!” and will reintegrate itself into the international system.1
Unfortunately, what Vieira seems to have in mind is a return to Itamaraty’s (the foreign ministry’s) traditional and mindless leftist approach to international affairs. He says Brazil favors dialogue with Russia, and of course will welcome Russia’s participation in meetings of the BRICS countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), including a visit by Vladimir Putin to Brazil.
When asked whether Brazil would adopt sanctions against Russia, Vieira replied with a disingenuous statement that Brazil would only enact sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council. Given the Russian veto in the Security Council, that amounted to a resounding “NO!”
Brazil was one of the Latin American countries that sent troops to Europe to fight Nazi fascism in World War II. The world breathed a sigh of relief when Lula defeated Jair Bolsonaro in the recent presidential elections. That was taken as a triumph of democracy over the authoritarian Bolsonaro.
Brazil, however, will make a fatal error if it persists in the policy toward Russia which Vieira just outlined.
The question for Lula and Brazil is whether they will join tbe anti-fascist coalition against Russia, drop the deceitful b.s. about dialogue with Putin, and impose sanctions on Russia that might help bring the war in Ukraine to an end sooner rather than later. Or will they in practical effect side with the war ciminals in the Kremlin?
In the 19th century the illustrious Brazilian diplomat and foreign minister, the Baron of Rio Branco, had high regard for international law and the settlement of international disputes in accordance with international law. Almost all if not all of Brazil’s border disputes with its neighbors were settled in this fashion. The Baron of Rio Branco was a strong supporter of international arbitration.
An
international Permanent Court of Arbitration was created at the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899, which was attended by 26 countries.
The Court of Arbitration was the forerunner of international adjudication by the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) (1919-1945) and the International Court of Justice (1945-present), established at the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919-1920 and at the United Nations Conference in San Francisco in 1945, respectively.
History is not without its ironies.
The first Hague Peace Conference was held on the initiative of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, and was convened by the Russian foreign minister. A second Hague Peace conference was held in 1907, at the suggestion of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and pursuant to a convocation by Russian Czar Nicholas II. It was attended by 44 countries. The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s procedures were developed further, and a number of conventions including those on the law of war and the rights of neutrals were adopted and later ratified.
Brazil ratified the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 in 1900 and 1914, respectively. Ruy Barboza, perhaps Brazil’s most famous lawyer, headed the Brazilian delegation to the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907.
It is ironic, and indeed tragic, that the establishment of tbe Permanent Court of Arbitration, which led to the subsequent establishment of the World Court (the PCIJ unader the League of Nations’ auspices and the present ICJ under those of the United Nations) traces its antecedents to the first Hague Peace Conference convened on the initiative of the Russian Czar.
Sadly, Russia is currently violating an Interim Order of Protection (like an injunction) of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by Ukraine against Russia. The order calls for Russia to cease its current military operations in Ukraine.
Tragically, Russia is pursuing a strategy in its war against Ukraine which is based on targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, in contravention of the fundamental principles underlying the law of war (international humanitarian law). The Hague Peace Conferences marked important advances in this field.
One can only imagine how the Baron of Rio Branco would react to Russia’s defiance of the ICJ’s Order of Interim Protection and its systematic violation of the laws of war. More importantly, how might the Baron of Rio Branco react to foreign minister Vieira’s outline of the Lula administration’s policy toward Russia and its fundamental challenge to and rejection of the U.N. Charter and international law?
Brazil played an important role together with the United States in the development of the international law principles of non-intervention and the sovereign equality of all states. These were set out in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, and further refined in the 1945 United Nations Charter and in the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1947 (the “Rio” Treaty).
Indeed, the legal principle prohibiting military intervention in another state, currently embodied in the prohibition of the use of force in Article 2 paragraph 4 of the U.N. Charter, and the principle of non-recognition of territorial gains achieved by conquest were fully developed in the law and practice of the Organization of American States after 1933.
It would constitute an amazing betrayal of the principle of non-intervention if Brazil were to persist in adopting a “neutral” position regarding Russia’s military intervention and aggression and war crimes in Ukraine.