Bolsonaro’s foreign policy is “amateur and improvised,” says diplomat

Foreign policy is a minefield, often having to contradict itself due to complex global realities. However, the Jair Bolsonaro government has surpassed all limits, battling imaginary enemies and defending the interests of its ideological support base, and not Brazil. This is the view of qualified diplomat Antonio Freitas, the creator of the Tapera Taperá project, a non-profit cultural center in downtown São Paulo.

Mr. Freitas is also critical of the administration’s exaltation of the Mercosur–European Union trade deal, as the conditions of the deal are not yet clear. What’s more, he considers the Brazil–U.S. subservience as akin to that of a dog and his master. Regarding Brazil’s foreign policy guidelines for the coming years, the diplomat is succinct: the government’s attitude is amateur and improvised.

“It is a government that is not concerned with making a foreign policy that serves the long-term national interest, but rather with the interest of a specific group that can help it guarantee a runoff in the 2022 elections.”

Antonio Freitas sat down with The Brazilian Report for an exclusive interview, the highlights of which are below.

After a year of President Jair Bolsonaro, do we have a more detailed view of his foreign policy agenda?

It is difficult to judge because there is no official diplomacy guide for this government. There was the inauguration speech made by Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araújo, delivered to Congress, but that had been drafted at the end of the Michel Temer government. Then, there was Mr. Bolsonaro’s speech at the United Nations [when] which was just a collection of affirmations and stupidities. There is a lot of amateurism and improvisation.

And what about the government’s actions, do they show signs of a path that is being followed?

There will always be differences between the speeches and the realities of foreign policy, in any government, but the actions of the current administration present great contradictions. On the one hand, there is a crusade against...