Notícias
Remarks by Minister Ernesto Araújo in the panel "Redefining Geopolitics", of the World Economic Forum in Davos - January 29th 2021
Børge Brede: And now to Ernesto Araújo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. Brazil is a very important BRICS country. You are also giants in your part of the world. And I think your relationship with the US is, of course, important, but also your relationship with China.
I think you said, minister, recently that it is important of a greater mutual understanding between Brazil and the US. Over to you.
Minister Ernesto Araújo: That's right, thank you, Børge. Yes, any change in the United States is immensely important for us and immensely important for the whole world. Basically, what I think is that we need the United States to remain the superpower of freedom. We need the United States to keep playing that role that they have been playing for 100 years or more around the world. So, if the administration wants to focus so much on climate change, I think that's great, Brazil is also focusing on climate change. But what we think that should be the core and we want to be the core of our relationship is the fundamental concept of freedom and liberty. So that's where we want to build our partnership with the United States on, and for that we need, of course, mutual understanding and the sense of also Brazil being perceived as what we are, what Brazil stands for today, which is democracy, an open economy. We come from decades where Brazil had a semi-state run economy with lots of corruption. And we are trying to overcome that, and we need key partners, not only the United States, but the U.S. is a key partner, but also the countries of my friends here represented: Canada, Spain, the European Union. We need those key partners to rebuild Brazil as a modern economy and really as a force for democracy in the region and in the world. So, with the United States in particular, it's a key relationship to promote democracy in the hemisphere, in the Western Hemisphere. Tremendous challenges are there for democracy, against democracy now, especially the connection between organized crime and certain political currents in the region.
We have to face that head on with the United States and all other partners that have been standing for democracy in the region. And around the world, we also see challenges to democracy. In that case, what we see as a challenge is the emergence of some sort of – maybe it's too much to say that, but I will use the expression – a techno-totalitarianism, which is not a question of the US against China, or China against the US. It is a question of different models of society that are emerging with the new technologies, and new technologies can be great for democracy, but they can also provide the means for total control societies, and we don't want those. And big tech companies can work for freedom, but they also can be instruments for totalitarian control. And that's the challenge that we would like to address together with the US and all other Democratic partners.
The panel is about reseting geopolitics, and I have been saying that we also need to think about logopolitics, logo in the sense of discourse. Whoever controls the discourse today, public discourse, has tremendous power, and we cannot leave that in the hands of actors, and I am not talking about countries or specific countries or specific companies, but actors that are not committed to freedom. So that's where I see this new connection that we want to build with the United States under the Biden administration. But also, as I said, that we want to build with our partners, preserving economic efficiency, preserving the need for sustainable development, for the quick recovery, but without forgetting freedom.
You know, Børge, I am not a great fan of the concept of the Great Reset. And why is that? We don't have anything against what is in it, which is sustainable development, equality and everything. But the question of what is not there, and that's basically the concepts of freedom and democracy. So that is the key frame, I think, where we see the world today, we want economic efficiency, sustainable development, inside a framework of freedom and democracy, and we have to work worldwide for that goal.
Børge Brede: Well, thank you so much, Minister, for also underlining this freedom and liberty. One of the things that President Biden said in the election campaign was that he wanted as President to initiate a meeting in D.C. and an alliance of democracies. Are you supportive of such approach?
And would Brazil also, then, join, I guess? And how do you see this dilemma then between such an alliance and also, for example, your cooperation with the BRICS, where you play a major role?
Minister Ernesto Araújo: Yes, we are in principle in favor of the idea of an alliance of democracies. It seems that it's a project that has everything to do with what Brazil stands for today, as I said, and what we would like to achieve. So, I think it should not be seen as something against specific actors, but for democracy. An alliance of democracies for democracy and, in a way, we have been already working in things that I think have to do with that sort of alliance. For example, in the WTO, Brazil stands strongly for a process of reform of the WTO that brings the WTO back to its original calling of working with the principles of the market economy. Sometimes today, you see in the world, if you play by the rules and if you open your economy like Brazil is opening, you're punished, and if you keep subsidies and if you do not sometimes play by the rules, you are rewarded. And we should avoid that and change that. We need an international system that rewards democracy, not that it punishes anyone, but that rewards democracy, rewards countries that open up and that want to have fundamental freedoms, freedom of speech, everything, and also economic freedom as well. So, the idea of an alliance of democracies, I think it's great, conceived not as an alliance against something, but an alliance for something, for this deeper concept of democracy, and as I told you, Brazil is coming from a situation where we were getting more and more away from the democratic world in previous administrations in Brazil, away from a market economy. And there is strong, not only political but popular and social sentiment, that Brazil must become a force for freedom, for liberty, for market economies as well. So, we see ourselves as a player in that sort of alliance.