Brazil President Praises India’s “Exceptionally Organised” G20 Summit
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday said that Brazil will put inequality as the core issue during the G20 Summit under its Presidency and said it was a huge challenge for Brazil to take over the G20 presidency.
“We will put inequality at the top: inequality of gender, race, education, health, poverty and hunger. The world needs balance,” the Brazilian President said addressing a press conference today after the conclusion of the two-day long G20 Summit in New Delhi on Sunday.
“I’m one of the founder members of G20,” said Lula da Silva pointing out that an important meeting like the G20 showed the importance of the multipolar world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 10 handed over the ceremonial gavel to Lula, intiating the process of transition of the President’s chair for the next round of the G20 to be held in Brazil.
“I would like to congratulate India for organising the Summit exceptionally well. We have received great warmth from the Indian people. Brazil has the conditions to be the host country of G20 next year. We want to use many cities in Brazil to organise a great number of events there,” he said.
Addressing a press conference here today, the Brazil President said he was not aware of the reason why Russian President Vladamir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the Summit.
“But I will invite them and I hope that they will come to Brazil and participate in the Summit. I hope that when we open the Summit in Brazil, I hope there is no more war and we are back to normal times…”
“It’s a lot of responsibility for Brazil to host the G20 summit next year. Everybody knows that we’ll chair the G20 and we will put the inequality issue as the core issue for the next G20 process for discussion,” the Brazil President said.
He further said, “There’s a lot of inequality in the world. We have few with a lot and many with very few resources. And so we have to build an understanding that the world needs more balance in terms of the wealth distribution that is being produced, so that we do not have to sleep every day to knowing that there’s 730 million people that are in hunger. And so this is a very extremely important there’s a lot of sensitivity.”
Lula da Silva said that another issue that Brazil will discuss under its G20 Presidency will be energy transition.
He stressed that Brazil has extraordinary potential in the production of clean energy and added that 90 per cent of his country’s electrical power is fully clean. He said that Brazil has a lot to teach to other countries on biofuels and clean energy.
Brazilian President said, “Another issue that going to put on the order of the day is the energy transition that we’ll discuss next year in the G20 process. Brazil has an extraordinary potential in the production of clean energy. Today we have of our electrical power, almost 90 per cent is fully clean.”
Speaking on the global bio fuel alliance, the Brazil President said that everybody knew of the role his country played in the push to make ethanol as an alternate fuel.
Brazil, India and the US launched the Global Biofuel Alliance on September 9 on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The goal of the three countries – the world’s main producers of biofuels – is to promote sustainable production and use of these products.
“This was the happiest decision for Brazil as we have been fighting for it. Brazil has tech control on bio fuels and this initiative is important for our future,” Lula said.
He also said that Brazil under its presidency will discuss the reform of multilateral institutions- the World Bank and the United Nations Security Council, including the reorganisation of the UNSC.
Brazilian President said, “And another point that is very important we’re going to discuss is the reform of the multilateral institutions. So the World Bank, it’s necessary in the World Bank, it’s necessary that the developed countries could also assume leadership in the bank. Since the very first meeting, we proposed changes.
There are very slight changes that happen in these institutions. And we want to discuss the issue of membership. The permanent member of the UN Security Council, which is important for us to change the geography of 1945 and put on a new map of 2024, which is the year that we’re going to have the discussion of the G20 in Brazil.”