Brazil’s cuddly ways are barrier to seat at the top table

Hillary Clinton, trying to stop what she fears is a warpath in the Middle East, is on a warpath of her own.

The US secretary of state is fighting to convince doubting countries of the merits of sanctions against Iran. Sceptics include Turkey (Iran’s neighbour), China (a traditional disbeliever) and Brazil.

Brazil? Having sailed through the global financial crisis, it has become important in the comedy of nations, almost without anyone noticing. Only last week, Brasilia hosted the leaders of China, Russia and India at the second “Brics” summit – with South Africa along for good measure.

More remarkable still has been the speed of Brazil’s ascent. It first attended a G8 summit only six years ago, as an observer. Back then, it had about 1,000 diplomats stationed around the world. Now there are 1,400. Last year, it even opened an embassy in Pyongyang.

“Brazil, Russia, India and China have a fundamental role in creating a new international order,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said last week.

That is the kind of imperial language one might expect of Russia or China. In Mr Lula da Silva’s case, however, it is sugared by the 64-year-old former labour leader’s global image as a common man – or “the man”, as Barack Obama once called him.

Certainly, Brazil’s leader suffered no discomfort in embracing Mrs Clinton one day in March and President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran the next – as he plans to do again during a visit to Tehran next month.

“I am infected by the peace virus,” Mr Lula da Silva once said. Brazil’s defence minister has even remarked that the country has no enemies.

However, Brazil’s rainbow policy may be reaching its limits and could even jeopardise the permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council that it covets.

Recent gaffes have stretched the bounds of Brazil’s honeyed image, and that of its president, too. “A political giant but a moral pygmy,” Moisés Naím, editor of Foreign Policy magazine, remarked recently.

There was the moment in February when Orlando Zapata, a human-rights activist in Cuba, died after an 86-day hunger strike. “I don’t think a hunger strike can be used as a pretext for human rights to free people,” commented Mr Lula da Silva, despite the fact that he staged his own protest fast during Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Then there is neighbouring Colombia, which Brazil has criticised for its agreement with the US over military bases, while ignoring Venezuela’s support for Colombia’s Farc guerrillas, and Caracas’s purchases of Russian arms.

Finally, there is Iran. Last year, Mr Lula da Silva congratulated Mr Ahmadi-Nejad for his contested election victory. After likening protesters to sore losers in a football match, he invited Mr Ahmadi-Nejad to Brazil. It was part of the self-styled role that Brasilia, which supports Iran’s right to nuclear power but not to nuclear arms, has adopted as peacebroker to all men.

To critics, this is gadfly foreign policy – narcissistic and naive. But like all powerful countries, Brazil is pursuing what it believes are its interests. Whether it is doing so effectively is another matter.

Brazilian diplomats are widely acknowledged as skilful negotiators, especially in trade. But the country lacks the research networks that inform the world views of, say, Washington or Moscow. It is not used to the floodlights of international opinion. Inevitably, it has made mistakes.

These have cost Brazil little, so far. Trade comprises only a fifth of the economy, so the need to maintain western commercial goodwill is not decisive. Foreign-policy issues count for little among domestic voters. Nor does it face any immediate problems on its borders. Brazil is less bound by security challenges, economic necessity or domestic politics than most. It can afford to say as it pleases – on Iran or otherwise.

Even so, many feel that if Brazil is to sit at the top table it will have to take hard choices. Brazil could help to get the Doha round of world trade talks off the ground – to its great eventual gain. But that would mean pushing on issues, such as intellectual property, that could disconcert current friends.

More challenging will be what will happen after October’s presidential election, when Brazil will have to manage without the cover of Mr Lula da Silva’s charm. Its image as a cuddly imperium may not endure.