It’s been less than 48 hours since Jair Bolsonaro was confirmed as Brazil’s president-elect – and there’s still two months before he takes office on January 1, 2019. We still don’t know who will be his pick for Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the challenges in foreign policy are well-known. According to experts on the matter, the new government will have five main issues ahead:
- Venezuela: the full-scale crisis in the neighboring country has provoked a massive migratory flux towards many Latin American countries – including Brazil. Every day, hundreds of Venezuelan-born families cross the northern border of Roraima to seek a better life. The current administration has opted for keeping an “open borders” policy, asking in multilateral forums for a joint political solution for the crisis.
- Trade war: Another hot foreign policy issue on the president-elect’s plate is the looming trade war between the world’s largest economies (and Brazil’s main trading partners), the U.S. and China. Brazil, as a major commodity exporter, is stuck in the middle of the crossfire and, in theory, needs to adopt a more balanced approach so as not to enrage either side.
- South America: The region’s political situation is another source of headache. The process of regional integration that Brazil has championed since the Workers’ Party came to power, in 2003, is stagnan. Entities such as Unasur and Mercosur have lost strength. Brazil has delegated its political stances in the region to the Lima Group (a multilateral body that was established following the Lima Declaration on 8 August 2017 in the Peruvian capital of Lima) – something that should change if the country seeks a protagonist role in the continent.
- Europe: Jair Bolsonaro will take over at a time when the European Union is as fragile as it has ever been. If Brexit is as hard on...
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