New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a renewed push for expansion of the UN Security Council, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday echoed similar views and called for reform of the powerful UN body to reflect contemporary realities.
The president of Brazil, which is the next chair of the G20 bloc, said his country wants the equality issue to be the “core issue” during its presidency.
“It is a lot of responsibility for Brazil to host the G20. We want the equality issue to be the core issue for the next G20. There is a lot of inequality and the world needs more balance in terms of the wealth distribution,” Lula said at a press conference.
“I want to congratulate India on a well-organised G20 Summit… Brazil is capable of hosting an event of this size. Like here in India, we would use a number of cities for the events and make it a people’s G20, a more democratic G20,” he said in Portuguese which was translated to English.
Lula said he does not know the reason why Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 Summit here but they would be invited to the Brazil summit and he hopes they would come.
He called for a reform of global financial institutions such as the World Bank to make it more representative of developing nations.
The Brazilian president also called for reform and expansion of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council to make it reflective of the geographical realities of 2024.
Later in a post on X, Lula hailed the reaching of consensus on the Ukraine issue in the Delhi Declaration adopted on Saturday.
He said the Global Biofuels Alliance was an important milestone at the G20 meeting.
“Brazil is a pioneer in this segment. It is very important for our future. The world is seeing the importance of biofuels to replace polluting fuels that deepen the climate crisis,” he said.
“We have scientific and technological knowledge to end hunger in humanity. That’s why I’m obsessed with creating more jobs, so that people can consume, eat and have a dignified life.
“This way we will have less crime, violence and people living on the streets of cities. We need to convince rich countries to be outraged by poverty and inequalities,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a renewed push for expansion of the UN Security Council and reforms in global institutions to reflect the world’s “new realities” as the G20 summit concluded here with world leaders lauding India’s presidency for ensuring several tangible outcomes.
Modi had also handed over the G20 presidential gavel to the Brazilian president at the concluding session of the summit and expressed faith that India’s successor will further global unity and prosperity.
Brazil will officially take over the mantle of the G20 presidency on December 1 and the next summit is scheduled to be held at the popular seaside resort city of Rio de Janeiro in November 2024.
Lula also held a bilateral meeting with Modi on Sunday evening where the two leaders talked about ways to boost trade and cooperation in agriculture and technology.
