Two weeks ago, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent two days doing what he does best: rubbing shoulders with world leaders of all political stripes who had gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the annual G20 Summit.
The days of Lula being “the most popular politician on Earth”—as then-U.S. President Barack Obama dubbed him in 2009—may be behind him, but Lula still enjoys a certain cachet at international gatherings. And by many measures, the summit, hosted by Brazil against the stunning backdrop of Rio’s iconic landscape, was a diplomatic success for Lula. Ever the pragmatist, he sought to find common ground between the world’s largest economies at a time of deepening international tensions and geopolitical uncertainty. Even Argentine President Javier Milei—a keen ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump with whom Lula is barely on speaking terms—ended up backing down from his threats to derail the Brazil-led consensus on issues like a global billionaire tax and gender equality, ultimately endorsing the summit’s final declaration despite its inclusion of both.
But the summit’s biggest achievement was the launch of a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative that brings together 82 countries and some 60 international institutions, NGOs and philanthropic organizations with the aim of eradicating hunger and poverty by 2030. Lula has long championed the fight against the “ultimate symbol of our collective tragedy,” and addressing global hunger, which affects over 733 million people worldwide, was one of the three key themes of Brazil’s G20 presidency.