To the G7 leaders who gathered in Évian, France on June 17, 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivered a much-needed lesson in economic policy. Instead of complaining about Chinese competition, he mentioned about the Asian Giant’s role in developing the Global South, saying that it would be beneficial “for you, for us and for the world”.

Lula began his speech by saying that the highly developed nations “are preoccupied with China’s growth and competitiveness”, while the rest of the world “is waiting for anyone willing to step forward as trade and investment partners”. The hundreds of millions of people in Latin America, Africa and India, who want to enjoy an “average standard of consumption”, are a “gigantic market waiting out there for you”, he told the G7 leaders. The Brazilian President added that investing in their development “will benefit the economy of the US, Europe and so many other countries. It is necessary to look at the world”.

Lula further stressed: “There is no point in sitting around this table complaining about China. Germany is thinking about China solely from its own perspective. The US and France are doing the same. We have to move away from this individual perspective and look at global imbalances as a whole. When are we going to turn 900 million Africans into consumers? It is when they receive the necessary investment and interest from the industries of developed countries.”

China has stepped in to fill the void “left open by your absence,” Lula said bluntly. “When Brazil holds international tenders for building roads, French, German, US companies, for example, do not participate. Who shows up? The Chinese,” he noted.

Lula insisted: “What we need is to change our behaviour, to look beyond our borders and to understand that only development will generate what we desire.” He further said: “Global military spending, which reached USD 3 trillion last year, will not do that. German Chancellor (Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef) Merz startled me when he said that his country spent EUR 15 billion on the war in Ukraine. This money could be invested in developing Germany’s partners.”

The President of Brazil told the G7 leaders: “Let us take advantage of the 21st Century and do things differently from what we did in the 20th Century. It is extremely positive to have China and India growing. That is 2.8 billion people consuming. Adding Brazil and Indonesia, that would be over three billion people. I want everyone to consume. And it is the developed countries that must get the ball rolling…”

This article was first published in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) Strategic Alert weekly newsletter (Volume 40, No. 26) on June 25, 2026.

Meanwhile,

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin

Contact us: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das