No. 08 — Foreign Policy
Multilateral diplomacy
The United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Mercosur and the institutions through which a middle power multiplies its voice.
- UN Security Council
- 11 elected terms; presidency October 2023
- G20
- Presidency Dec 2023 – Nov 2024
- BRICS
- Chairship 2025
- COP30
- Host, Belém, November 2025
October 2023
Presiding over the Security Council
Brazil held the Council's rotating presidency in October 2023, the last full month of its 2022–23 term. Vieira presided over meetings from 20 to 25 October, including the ministerial-level open debate on the Middle East on 24 October, and held the presidency's closing press encounter on 31 October.
The 18 October vote on Brazil's draft resolution on humanitarian pauses — 12 in favour, 1 against, 2 abstentions, not adopted owing to the US veto — was presided over by Brazil's Permanent Representative, Ambassador Sérgio França Danese.
United NationsFounded 1945 · Brazil a founding member
Purpose
The universal organisation for international peace and security, development and human rights, whose Charter Brazil signed at San Francisco in 1945.
Brazil's role
Brazil has opened the general debate of the General Assembly since 1955 and has been elected to the Security Council eleven times, most recently for 2022–23. It advocates reform of the Council, including new permanent members.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
Permanent Representative in New York (2016–2020) and Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission’s Guinea-Bissau configuration. As minister, presided over Security Council meetings in October 2023, chaired a G20 ministerial at UN Headquarters in September 2024, and met Presidents of the General Assembly in 2015 and 2025.
Diplomatic significance
The UN is the institutional expression of the multilateralism written into Brazil’s diplomatic tradition, and the forum in which Brazil pursues its long-standing aspiration to Council reform.
G20Brazil’s presidency: 1 Dec 2023 – 30 Nov 2024
Purpose
The forum of the world’s major economies, meeting at leaders’ level since the 2008 financial crisis.
Brazil's role
Brazil’s presidency set three priorities: social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty; sustainable development, energy transitions and climate action; and reform of global governance institutions. The Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Summit on 18–19 November 2024 launched the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty with 82 countries at launch.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
Chaired the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Rio de Janeiro (21–22 February 2024) and at UN Headquarters in New York (25 September 2024) — the first G20 meeting held at the UN and open to all UN members, which launched a Call to Action on Global Governance Reform. Attended the Johannesburg foreign ministers’ meeting in February 2025 as a member of the troika.
Diplomatic significance
The presidency placed hunger and global-governance reform — two long-standing Brazilian themes — at the centre of the G20 agenda.
BRICSLeaders’ summits since 2009
Purpose
A grouping of emerging economies. Foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China first met at the UN General Assembly in 2006; leaders first met in Yekaterinburg in 2009; South Africa joined in 2010–11. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE joined in 2024, and Indonesia in 2025.
Brazil's role
A founding member. Brazil held the chairship in 2025 and hosted the 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro on 6–7 July 2025. India holds the 2026 chairship.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
Publicly supported the 2023 enlargement, saying it would “bring more weight and more visibility to BRICS on the world stage”. Chaired the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Rio de Janeiro on 28–29 April 2025 — the first of the enlarged group — and travelled to New Delhi in September 2026 to represent President Lula at the 18th summit.
Diplomatic significance
BRICS gives Brazil a platform with major non-Western powers; Brazilian diplomacy presents it as complementary to, not a replacement for, the established multilateral institutions.
IBSAIndia · Brazil · South Africa · since 2003
Purpose
A trilateral dialogue of three multi-ethnic democracies of the South, launched by the Brasília Declaration of 6 June 2003. Its IBSA Fund, set up in 2004, finances development projects in other developing countries.
Brazil's role
Co-founder; the Declaration was adopted in Brasília by the foreign ministers of the three countries.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
This archive has not located a specific IBSA engagement by Vieira in its sources; see the Global South page for context.
Diplomatic significance
IBSA predates BRICS and remains a reference point for South-South coordination among democracies.
MercosurTreaty of Asunción · 26 March 1991
Purpose
A customs union founded by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela has been suspended since 2016–17; Bolivia completed the ratification of its accession in July 2024.
Brazil's role
Founding member and largest economy. Brazil handed the pro tempore presidency to Paraguay at the Foz do Iguaçu summit in December 2025.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
Represented Brazil at the signing of the EU–Mercosur agreement in Asunción on 17 January 2026, describing it as a “bulwark” in “a world battered by unpredictability, protectionism, and coercion”.
Diplomatic significance
The EU–Mercosur agreement, signed after roughly twenty-five years of negotiation, is among the largest trade agreements concluded by either bloc.
CELAC & UNASURRegional political forums
Purpose
CELAC, founded in Caracas in 2011, brings together the 33 states of Latin America and the Caribbean. UNASUR’s founding treaty was signed in Brasília in 2008.
Brazil's role
Brazil suspended its participation in CELAC in January 2020 and withdrew from UNASUR in April 2019; it rejoined CELAC in January 2023 and UNASUR in April 2023.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
The returns took place in the first months of his second ministerial term, consistent with the inaugural speech’s stated aim of reinserting Brazil “in its region”.
Diplomatic significance
The re-entries illustrate how participation in regional forums has varied with Brazilian governments.
ACTOAmazon Cooperation Treaty · 3 July 1978
Purpose
The organisation of the eight Amazon countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
Brazil's role
Brazil hosted the Amazon Summit in Belém on 8–9 August 2023, which adopted the Belém Declaration with 113 objectives.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
No specific personal role is documented in this archive’s sources; the summit was a presidential-level meeting.
Diplomatic significance
ACTO is the regional frame for Amazon diplomacy, which Brazil connected to its hosting of COP30 in the same city.
COP30UN Climate Change Conference · Belém
Purpose
The 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Leaders’ Summit took place on 6–7 November 2025 and the conference on 10–21 November.
Brazil's role
Host and presidency. Outcomes included the “Global Mutirão” decision and a call to triple adaptation finance by 2035. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility was launched on 6 November with 53 countries endorsing its declaration and more than US$5.5bn announced.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
Discussed COP30 preparations with the President of the General Assembly in New York on 26 September 2025.
Diplomatic significance
Hosting COP30 in the Amazon placed forests and climate finance at the centre of Brazil’s international agenda.
CPLPCommunity of Portuguese Language Countries · 1996
Purpose
Created in Lisbon on 17 July 1996; nine members across four continents: Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
Brazil's role
Founding member and the community’s largest country by population.
Mauro Vieira's documented involvement
His chairmanship of the Peacebuilding Commission’s Guinea-Bissau configuration (2016–2020) concerned a fellow CPLP member.
Diplomatic significance
The CPLP anchors Brazil’s cultural and linguistic diplomacy in Africa, Europe and Asia.
Sources & Further Reading38 references
- UN elects five new members to serve on the Security Council (June 2021)UN News
- Brazil in the United Nations Security Council 2022–2023CEBRI Journal
- How is the order of speakers at the UN General Assembly decided?The National
- Israel-Gaza crisis: US vetoes Security Council resolution (18 October 2023)UN News
- Security Council fails to adopt resolution calling for humanitarian pauses in Israel-Gaza crisis (SC/15450)United Nations
- The Middle East, including the Palestinian question: ministerial-level open debate (October 2023)Security Council Report
- Media stakeout by Mauro Vieira at the end of Brazil's Security Council presidencyUN Audiovisual Library
- New Permanent Representative of Brazil Presents Credentials — BIO/4898 (11 November 2016)United Nations
- Security Council briefing by the Chair of the PBC Guinea-Bissau configuration (14 February 2017)UN Peacebuilding
- Meeting with Minister of External Relations of Brazil (30 September 2015)United Nations — President of the General Assembly
- Readout of the President of the General Assembly's meeting with H.E. Mr. Mauro Vieira (26 September 2025)United Nations — President of the General Assembly
- G20 Brasil 2024Government of Brazil
- Press Statement by Minister Mauro Vieira at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting (Rio de Janeiro, 22 February 2024)G20 Research Group, University of Toronto
- G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, United Nations Headquarters (September 2024)Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
- G20 Leaders' Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 18–19 November 2024Council of the European Union
- World leaders launch the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty (18 November 2024)Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty
- Ambitious commitments mark end of Brazil's G20 presidencyUN Sustainable Development Group
- Jaishankar holds bilateral talks with Singapore, Brazil counterparts on G20 sidelines in Johannesburg (20 February 2025)DD News
- About BRICS — India's BRICS chairship 2026Government of India
- Expansion will bring more weight and visibility to BRICS on the world stage, says Mauro Vieira (25 August 2023)Brasil 247
- Brazil opens BRICS meeting with call to end wars, global tensions (29 April 2025)Brasil de Fato
- Brazilian FM Mauro Vieira arrives in New Delhi to attend 18th BRICS Summit (September 2026)The Tribune (India)
- Brasília Declaration (6 June 2003)IBSA Dialogue Forum
- IBSA — background noteIndian Council of World Affairs
- Textos fundacionales del MercosurMercosur
- Suspensión de Venezuela en el MercosurMercosur
- Bolivia's entry as full member should set tone of Mercosur summit (July 2024)Agência Brasil
- Paraguay handed over Mercosur pro tempore presidency (22 December 2025)MercoPress
- EU, Mercosur bloc sign free trade deal after 25 years of negotiations (17 January 2026)Al Jazeera
- Brazil once again part of CELAC: understand what the regional bloc is (January 2023)Agência Brasil
- Return of Brazil to UNASUR (April 2023)Itamaraty
- Get to know the Belém Declaration signed by the Amazon countriesAmazon Cooperation Treaty Organization
- COP30 — United Nations Climate Change Conference, BelémUnited Nations
- Belém COP30 delivers climate finance boost and pledge to plan fossil fuel transitionUN Geneva
- COP30: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in BelémCarbon Brief
- Over USD 5.5 billion announced for Tropical Forest Forever Facility as 53 countries endorse the TFFF launch declarationCOP30 Presidency
- Histórico — como surgiu a CPLPCPLP
- Discurso do Embaixador Mauro Vieira por ocasião da posse no cargo de Ministro de Estado das Relações Exteriores (2 January 2023)FUNAG