Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged South America’s biggest trading bloc to focus on strengthening ties with Asia, risking the group’s unity.
Asia is now the “dynamic center” of the global economy, Lula said, but other Mercosur members including Argentina have argued for prioritizing European and US ties, with Argentinian President Javier Milei threatening to leave the group if his demands are not met.
The leaders’ dueling comments came ahead of a separate BRICS summit where Lula plans to defend free trade in the face of US protectionism, underscoring friction between Brasília and Washington. “We are in a moment of damage containment more than a moment of creating new instruments,” a Brazilian diplomat told The Economist.
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