Brazilian President Lula's Full Speech at BRICS Summit 2025

BRICS and Multilateralism

• 💡 President Lula positioned BRICS as the heir to the Non-Aligned Movement, advocating for a multipolar international order.
• 🎯 He highlighted that with multilateralism under attack, the autonomy of nations is once again being challenged.
• 🚀 Lula emphasized that BRICS, with its representativeness and diversity, can promote peace and mediate conflicts, laying the groundwork for revitalized global governance.

Critiques of Global Institutions

• ⚠️ Lula criticized the collapse of multilateralism and the UN's 80-year history, noting that the UN Security Council suffers from loss of credibility and paralysis.
• 📈 He pointed out that the international governance system does not reflect the new multipolar reality of the 21st century.
• 🚨 The speech condemned illegal interventions and the instrumentalization of international agencies, citing the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the IAEA.

Global Conflicts and Humanitarian Concerns

• ⚔️ Lula stated that the world faces an unprecedented number of conflicts since World War II, with NATO's decision to increase defense spending fueling an arms race.
• 🕊️ He condemned terrorism, including attacks in Kashmir and by Hamas, but also strongly criticized Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide and the use of hunger as a weapon.
• 🌍 The President called for a sovereign Palestinian state within 1967 borders and urged direct dialogue for a lasting peace in the Ukraine war, mentioning the China-Brazil peace initiative.
• 🆘 Lula also highlighted the need for an expanded UN mission in Haiti combining security and development actions, and expressed concern about the return of the fear of nuclear catastrophe.

Reforming the UN Security Council

• ✅ Lula stressed the urgent need to transform the UN Security Council to make it more legitimate, representative, effective, and democratic.
• 🤝 He advocated for the inclusion of new permanent members from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean to ensure the UN's survival and address global crises.
• ⏳ Delaying this reform makes the world more unstable and dangerous, as an archaic and exclusive international structure hinders solutions to humanity's grave crises, a call echoed by the Brazilian G20 presidency.