Last week, two major events dominated Brazilian public discourse: the G20 summit, and the exposure of an assassination plot that targeted the country’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Taking place from November 18 to 19 in Rio de Janeiro, the latest summit of the G20 nations posed a challenge for Lula and his cabinet. They sought to balance Brazilian diplomatic goals of combating global poverty and climate change with the pressing geopolitical demands of the Global North concerning the escalating wars in Europe and the Middle East.

For all practical purposes, the outcome of the summit was a success for Lula’s diplomatic ambitions. Parties as varied as Argentina’s self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” president Javier Milei and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reached an agreement over a “Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.”