Brazil President Lula: India does not have the mindset of a coloniser

A day after holding bilateral talks with PM Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday that India and Brazil negotiate in a way where “no one is above the other country” and India doesn’t have the mindset of a “coloniser”. Referring to US President Donald Trump, Lula said that he doesn’t want “a new Cold War” and doesn’t want to interfere in any other country – rather wants to have “equal relations” with all countries. However, he was cautious about commenting on the Trump tariffs, which have been struck down by the US Supreme Court, and the US President’s subsequent imposition of 15 per cent tariff on all countries. The Brazilian President’s remarks came at a 50-minute press conference on Sunday, before he departed India and headed for South Korea. Lula had come to India for the AI Impact Summit and stayed on for a bilateral on Saturday. On the talks with India, Lula said, “What is really more important is that when we’re talking about negotiation with a country like India, we are not dealing with a coloniser.” Unlike dealings with rich countries that often fail to account for the happiness of individual nations, he said, “With India, it’s different.” This balanced power dynamic, where “no one is above the other country,” stems from a mutual understanding of shared needs and attitudes, Lula said. He noted that despite differences in religion and language, there is a profound similarity in the challenges both nations (India and Brazil) face. He asserted that this shared perspective makes it “much easier for us to work and to establish an action plan” and build partnerships between entrepreneurs from both sides. “We discuss what unites us and what unites us (at) this moment is our fight – so that our economies will become stronger and we can get out of the situation that we face ourselves. We want to transform ourselves into highly developed countries… I came here to discuss a convergence between Brazil and India, and I have a lot of affinities with Prime Minister Modi, and I didn’t even discuss the details of his agreement with the US. That’s his problem, (just) as the agreement that we make is my problem. It was an extraordinary conversation.” President Lula said, “Brazil advocates that developing countries… should form blocs to negotiate together… we advocate multilateralism. If a small country negotiates with a bigger country, the agreement will always be harmful for the smaller country.” About the tariffs imposed by Trump, the Brazilian President said, “I think that we made the right decisions vis-a-vis the tariff issues and some things were lowered by the government… and now the (US) Supreme Court made another decision going against what President Trump was doing. Of course, I cannot judge the rulings of another country’s Supreme Court.” On the ties between the US and Brazil, Lula said, “We’re the two largest democracies of the Americas. We are two men of 80 years of age, so we cannot play around with democracy, we have to take this very seriously. We have to shake hands… discuss what is best for the US and Brazil. And there’s no veto. There’s nothing forbidden in terms of issues on the negotiation table. Put everything on the table.” According to reports, the Brazilian President is slated to visit the US early March. Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More