Brazilian Foreign Policy Will Face Challenges Involving Trump, Big Tech and Critical Minerals under The Next Administration - Folha de S.Paulo

Foreign policy has taken an unprecedentedly prominent role in this year’s presidential election, placing the two candidates leading the polls, Flávio Bolsonaro and President Lula, on opposing sides.

Experts say the next government will face difficult relations with Donald Trump, as well as challenges such as pressure to reduce regulation of big tech, the fight against transnational drug trafficking and decisions on foreign investment in critical minerals.

Flávio devotes just 2.5 of the 75 pages of his government platform to foreign policy, without mentioning the Brics, Mercosur or Trump, and promises "a diplomacy guided by professionalism and pragmatism, not ideology."

In interviews, however, he adopts a tone more aligned with the U.S.: he said Brazil would no longer be marked by "submission to China" and promised to "consider" the country’s withdrawal from the Brics.

Lula made foreign policy and defense central elements of his platform, linking the issue to sovereignty.

For Feliciano Guimarães, a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), the formulation that "foreign policy and national defense are complementary dimensions of the same strategy" represents a change in the traditional language of the Brazilian left.