Mexico returns to the scene. President Claudia Sheinbaum traveled to Rio de Janeiro this Sunday to participate in a G-20 summit marked by Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, and Brazil’s attempt to forge an alliance against hunger and inequality. In a very uncertain global board before the Republican’s return to the White House starting on January 20, the president’s participation leaves behind the retreat in foreign policy that characterized the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and sends a clear message: Government of Mexico, which this Monday and Tuesday will actively defend the proposal against poverty of the host president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the construction of peace wants to be in the forums of international debate and deliberation.
It was Lula himself, at Sheinbaum’s inauguration on October 1, who expressed his interest in the president attending the annual meeting of the largest economies in the world. His presence, as explained by the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, raised many expectations, which will materialize in eight planned bilateral meetings. Among them, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the prime ministers of Canada, Justin Trudeau, the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, India, Narendra Modi, or Japan, Shigeru Ishiba. But beyond strengthening diplomatic relations, the president will speak this Monday in two plenary sessions. The first, focused on the fight against chronic malnutrition, which affects 722 million people in the world; and the second, on the reform of global governance institutions.
“Mexico has already clearly established that we do join President Lula’s initiative [contra el hambre]”We joined as founders of this alliance and there will be a declaration of commitment from the countries that have agreed to join,” said De la Fuente. The experience provided by the Executive is based on some social initiatives that López Obrador launched and that Sheinbaum promised to continue promoting. For example, the Sembrando Vida program, focused on reforestation, or Young People Building the Future, dedicated to training, which have already been exported to Central America and which the former president used as a tool to alleviate migratory flows. In the absence of details, one of the president’s ideas is to allocate part of the multi-million dollar investment in weapons to global development programs.
Furthermore, the Government seeks to have its position reflected in the final declaration, the most political document of the summit, which was still being negotiated this Sunday, especially the section related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. In the process of preparing the text, in which the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance participated, the Mexican delegation worked to include references to gender equality, sustainable development – another of the axes of the G-20 -, culture and the future of the digital agenda, according to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Mexico’s expectations about the viability of this alliance, at least on paper, are high, and those involved believe that they can also learn by observing the work of other countries such as Brazil, where Lula’s policies had a great impact, especially in the rural environments, to incorporate new proposals to the Executive’s social program. However, the translation of practices to reduce inequality into concrete measures becomes enormously complicated in a scenario full of unknowns. Trump’s second term brings uncertainty on all sides of international politics. And although the Republican magnate is not present at the Rio de Janeiro summit, his return to this forum is imminent. And to this is added that the Argentine president, Javier Milei, arrived in Brazil with the intention of being the discordant voice of the conclave, as happened this week with the withdrawal of the South American country’s delegation from the COP29 climate conference being held in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.
The G-20 is a group in which the philosophy of consensus among all members prevails, but that also means that the position of the US Administration can be a stumbling block even if there is an agreement by the majority of members. And a key factor in the fight against inequality is the management of migration. Trump has already threatened Sheinbaum, as he did with his predecessor, with a tariff war if Mexico does not comply with its immigration program, which includes plans for mass deportations. However, the president has maintained caution and has avoided adding fuel to the fire to avoid straining the bilateral relationship. In the first call she had with her counterpart after November 5, he already “raised the issue of the border,” but she did not want to rush. “Yes, there is the issue of the border, but there will be space to talk about it,” he answered.
Meanwhile, his presence in Brazil, where he arrived on a commercial flight, opens a new stage in Mexico’s foreign policy that suggests a greater presence on the global geopolitical board.
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