Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, criticized the UN Security Council's actions regarding the main international conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine and the Israeli invasion of Gaza. The statement was made during the opening ceremony of the G20 meeting with chancellors on Wednesday (21), in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Vieira, there is an “unacceptable paralysis in the UN Security Council regarding the current ongoing conflicts.” The Brazilian minister added that the inaction state “means losing lives.”
“Our positions concerning the cases under discussion at the G20, particularly the situation in Ukraine and Palestine are well known and have been presented publicly in the appropriate forums, such as the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly,” he said.
UN reform is one of the priorities of Brazil's presidency of the group, which runs until November 30 this year. The fight against climate change and the creation of a global alliance against poverty and hunger are also among the main guidelines of the country's diplomacy.
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“Without peace and cooperation, it will be extremely difficult to achieve the promised large-scale mobilization of the necessary resources to confront the existential threats that we face, particularly the fight against poverty, inequality and the protection of the environment,” the minister stated.
"While the north of the world is united in a military alliance, the countries of the south of the world are committed to establishing peace and cooperation agreements. The extraordinary situation in which the entire southern hemisphere of the planet has chosen to be completely denuclearized is kept out of the prevailing narrative," he added. Vieira also criticized the huge military spending in rich countries to the detriment of investments in development and actions to curb climate change.
“It is not reasonable for the world to far exceed US$ 2 trillion in military expenditures every year. By way of comparison, the Development Assistance Program remains stagnated at around US$ 60 billion per year, less than 3 percent of military spending; the disbursements to fight climate change with the packing of the Paris Agreement scarcely meet the commitment of US$ 100 billion per year, less than 5 percent of military spending,” Vieira said.
Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister also made a call for ministers attending the event to reject the “use of force, intimidation, unilateral sanctions” as a way to act on the international stage, valuing the commitments of the UN Charter.
“I encourage all countries to begin a dialog reiterating their commitments to the United Nations Charter and publicly rejecting the use of force, intimidation, unilateral sanctions, espionage, mass manipulation of social media platforms and any other measures that are inconsistent with the spirit and rules of multilateralism as the means to do with international relations,” he concluded.
Edited by: Thalita Pires
