During his visit to Brazil in the late 1960s, General Charles de Gaulle said presumptuously that Brazil was “not a serious country” and that it was a “country of tomorrow”. De Gaulle forgot that in August 1944, during a White House internal meeting, the possibility of adding Brazil as the sixth permanent member of the Security Council had been discussed.

At the Dumbarton Oaks conference, US Under Secretary of State Edward Stettinius raised the Brazil question. However, the invitation never arrived despite President Vargas taking up the issue with Stettinius.

The military rule from 1964 to 1985 remains one of the most terrible periods in Brazilian history, as it was marked by state-sanctioned repression, human rights violations, censorship, and an artificial economic transformation.

Brazil, under the leadership of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, has remained focused on situating Brazil among the great world powers. Brazil ticks all the boxes to become a world leader.

As Brazilian diplomat and writer Sergio Franca Danese argues, Brazil under Lula has earned a well-deserved place in the comity of nations given its “assets—natural, economic, human, and diplomatic—that grant it a place at the table of global negotiations”.

Historian Andre Pagliarina, in his book, Lula: A People’s President and the Fight for Brazil’s Future, says that Lula has positioned himself “as one of the leading voices of the Global South”. Few leaders from the developing world enjoy as much goodwill from broad swathes of the population as Lula........

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