Brazil-China: media downplays "great goal"

247 - The "conservative media" downplayed the "extraordinary" agreements signed between Brazil and China this week, criticizes sociologist and international relations expert Marcelo Zero in an article for 247. The deals signed between the two countries, totaling US$53 billion, "were received by many nostalgic for the Cold War with studied coldness and undisguised ill will," he says.

Zero emphasizes that "there is nothing ideological or partisan about these successful aspects of Brazil's new foreign policy, contrary to what those who propose the suicidal agenda of ending Mercosur seem to believe." And that "there is an attempt, at all costs, to minimize a major achievement of Brazil's foreign policy and a concrete and substantial manifestation of confidence in the country."

"If this week's agreements had been made with the US or the EU, the reception would have been very different. Skepticism and ill will would have given way to unrestrained celebrations and howls of mongrels, in the name of the return of Brazilian diplomacy to its 'natural course'. A natural course that, if resumed, will probably imply the country's accession to the 'bilateralized' FTAA contained in the free trade agreements signed with the US," he concludes.

Read the full text below:

In the Wrong Country

By Marcelo Zero

Brazilian foreign policy has become a prime target for petty and short-sighted partisan disputes.

The rejection of the brilliant Ambassador Guilherme Patriota to represent us at the OAS, the first rejection of a career ambassador in the plenary session of the Federal Senate, is a worrying symptom of the degree of hysteria and misinformation that has taken over the debate on Brazil's international relations.

In Congress, a sort of "Cold War caucus" has emerged, which views Brazil's position in the world as if we were still in the 1980s.

from the 60s. Its members seem to be involved in a crusade against "Bolivarianism," "leftism," "Third Worldism," and other "ideological evils" that, according to them, have been distorting Brazilian foreign policy, diverting it from its "natural course."

In the conservative media, there is no shortage of foolish writers who pen angry diatribes against the country's foreign policy, revealing an unbelievable lack of knowledge about elementary issues of international relations.

Ignorance and ill will.

Thus, the extraordinary agreements signed this week between Brazil and China, which involve, in their initial stages alone, investments of around US$53 billion, were received by many of these Cold War nostalgics with studied coldness and undisguised ill will.

There is an attempt, at all costs, to downplay a major achievement of Brazilian foreign policy and a concrete and substantial demonstration of confidence in the country.

But there can be no doubt about the extent, scope, and high strategic significance of these agreements.

First, the US$53 billion in investments that China is expected to make in Brazilian infrastructure will decisively contribute to Brazil's return to growth. In a context of budgetary constraints and political attacks on BNDES, our major investment bank, this influx of Chinese money could not have come at a better time. Likewise, China's decision to finance Petrobras projects with US$7 billion could not have come at a better time, in stark contrast to the campaign that, in the name of fighting corruption, seeks to weaken this large company and hand over the pre-salt reserves to domestic and foreign vultures.

Secondly, the agreements extend to the financial sector, crucial for the economic recovery of the country and the world. Thus, Brazil and China decided to create a $50 billion fund for infrastructure in Brazil, involving Caixa Econômica Federal and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank in assets. This new initiative complements Brazil's membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a large investment bank created by China to finance infrastructure projects, and the New Development Bank of the BRICS, as well as the Contingent Reserve Arrangement of that bloc.

These funds and banks created by China, Brazil, and other emerging countries will constitute an alternative financial architecture to the World Bank and the IMF, institutions that impose heavy and sometimes recessionary conditions for lending money to developing countries.

For Brazil, this will mean a much larger volume of investments and easier access to financing. For China, these initiatives, in addition to enabling infrastructure development in strategic partnerships, will contribute to the progressive liberation from the "dollar empire" in its international transactions.

Thirdly, some of the projects foreseen in the agreements are structural and of high logistical value. The Transoceanic Railway, for example, will allow Brazil easier access to the Pacific Ocean, enabling it to transport its production to the fastest-growing region on the planet. There is no better "Pacific alliance" than this.

However, the greater significance of these agreements is not economic, it is geopolitical.

Indeed, they highlight profound geoeconomic and geostrategic changes that have been occurring in the world order. Changes that our Cold War nostalgics have difficulty perceiving.

From the late 90s and the beginning of this century, there has been a clear divergence between the dynamics of emerging countries and those of developed countries. Emerging countries have begun to show substantially more intense growth than developed countries.

This has caused a profound geoeconomic shift in the world. China and other developing countries, such as Brazil, India, etc., have acquired a much greater economic prominence. Obviously, this greater prominence has opened new and significant windows of opportunity for Brazil, especially in the field of foreign trade and investment. It should be taken into account that, due to this greater growth, emerging and developing countries have enormously increased their participation in world trade. In the early 90s, these countries accounted for only one-third of international trade. In recent years, however, these countries have come to account for about half of this flow.

Inevitably, Brazil has changed its economic position in the world.

Thus, developing countries now absorb about 60% of our exports, while developed countries absorb 40%. At the beginning of this century, this equation was reversed. And developing and emerging countries are also very important for our manufactured exports, especially due to regional integration and Mercosur. In fact, these countries already account for 60% of Brazilian exports of manufactured goods. This is not just about commodities, as is erroneously stated.

Furthermore, in the current crisis, it is precisely these countries that are ensuring a more balanced trade for us, despite the growing reduction in our surpluses and the small deficit recorded in 2014. Between 2009 and 2014, we obtained a surplus of US$ 103 billion with emerging and developing countries, but we suffered a deficit of more than US$ 60 billion with developed countries, US$ 45 billion of which was with the USA.

With these geoeconomic changes came, of course, geopolitical changes.

Brazil has taken advantage of these changes in the world order in a realistic way.

In other words, the world economy has changed, new dynamic poles have emerged among emerging countries, new power articulations have arisen on the international stage, and Brazil, thanks to its new foreign policy, has pragmatically taken advantage of these changes in international geoeconomics and world geopolitics.

Thus, there is nothing ideological or partisan about these successful aspects of Brazil's new foreign policy, contrary to what those nostalgic for the Cold War and those who propose the suicidal agenda of ending Mercosur seem to believe.

If this week's agreements had been made with the US or the EU, the reception would have been quite different. Skepticism and ill will would have given way to unrestrained celebrations and the howls of mongrels, in the name of Brazilian diplomacy returning to its "natural course." A natural course that, if resumed, will likely imply the country's accession to the "bilateralized" FTAA contained in the free trade agreements signed with the US.

China, also pragmatic, is betting on Brazil and trusting in the new country that is being built. It is looking far ahead and strengthening its strategic partnership with Brazil.

Those nostalgic for the Cold War can only look to the past, searching for an old world and a diminished Brazil that no longer exist.

Shortsighted in their strategy, they see things incorrectly and vote incorrectly.

They're in the wrong country.