IN the next few hours, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will join world leaders at the G7 Summit in Italy. His attendance at the event comes nearly a year after calling the bloc “outdated.”
The G7 Summit, an assembly of the world’s major economies and a platform for crucial diplomatic engagements, will take place in Borgo Egnazia from the 13th to the 15th of June.
It was formerly known as G8 until Russia exited from the group in 2014.
Lula will participate in the International Labour Organization’s conference in Geneva, Switzerland which ends on the 14th of June before traveling to Italy.
Brazil, currently among the world’s top global economies, will serve as a guest observer at the G7 summit.
For this year’s summit, Lula is expected to promote Brazil’s policies such as social inclusion, fighting inequality, environmental sustainability, and reforms in global governance.
He will also propose critical issues like implementing a two percent global tax on the super-rich, with the money used to address climate change and inequality.
Created in 1975, the Brazilian leader last year called the G7 an “outdated” format and questioned its existence. He added that the bloc should have disappeared after the creation of the G20 in 1999.
Lula also pointed out that BRICS – which originally stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China. and South Africa – is not meant to challenge the G7, G20, and the United States but mainly to establish the so-called Global South.
Brazil will hold the Presidency of the G20 until November 2024. The final summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro on the 18th and 19th of November. It marked the first time Brazil presided over a bloc of the world’s largest economies.
