Celso Amorim, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Foreign Policy Advisor, will sound out the Foreign Ministers of other BRICS countries also in Bejing this week about Brazil’s proposal that the BRICS leaders hold an extraordinary virtual summit to coordinate responses to “attacks” on multilateralism, Valor Económico reported on August 28. Amorim will be in Beijing for the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism and Japanese militarism on Sept. 3.
The issue is President Donald Trump’s tariff warfare. Lula had announced on Aug. 20 that “together with the BRICS, we will hold a teleconference, which is being organized so that we can discuss what we can do to improve relations between all the countries that have been affected” by those tariffs, during the ceremony announcing the “Sovereign Brazil” program of measures to defend the national economy. Valor reported that Amorim has already consulted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the proposal (giving no further details).
