Brazil is cautious, but is receiving a message from the United States that relations will be normal even if Trump wins

Brasilia (Reuters) – With the elections approaching in the United States, and with real chances of Republican Donald Trump returning to power, the Brazilian government has adopted a position of waiting and watching from afar, but it has already received a message from North American diplomacy that nothing will change in the future between the two countries, regardless of who wins in the election. The conflict, according to sources interviewed by Reuters.

One of the sources said, “It is still too early to look for contacts. We do not know who will actually be in the government. Whoever is there today may not be there in January. We have to wait and see.”

The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has a positive relationship with Democratic US President Joe Biden. During the elections that took place in Brazil in 2022, the Biden government sent several messages to the then government of Jair Bolsonaro, stating that it would not support any attempt at democratic rupture, at the same time that it spoke with representatives of Lula even before the elections.

Washington was one of Lula's first trips abroad after his election, in March 2023, and this year Lula has already announced his support for Biden in this election.

During his term, Trump had a close relationship with Bolsonaro, which continued after his departure from the presidency and continues until now, as the son of former president Eduardo Bolsonaro had more than one meeting with Trump in Florida.

Two sources said that North American diplomats had given the Brazilian government a guarantee that the institutional relationship between the two countries would not change even if Trump was elected. One of the sources said: “The message that has reached us is that there is a relationship between countries that will not be affected.”

Some countries, such as Japan, Germany and Mexico, have already appointed envoys to communicate with the Republican team, as Reuters showed.

Brazil, on the contrary, should not try anything until the election date is set, the sources said. There is still an opinion that the US elections are indeterminate, especially after recent opinion polls showed a smaller difference between Biden and Trump.

In the Brazilian case, one source said, the decision to act and how to act will depend on President Lula. One source said that in the eventual Republican victory, Lula would set the pace of rapprochement with the new president, but the institutional relationship would remain.