Brazil’s president says UN’s credibility at all-time low as conflicts surge worldwide

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday urged world leaders to take stronger action in response to intensifying global conflicts, while also warning that countries shouldn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other nations.

The mixed messages came as Lula spoke to the United Nations General Assembly, just before U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the group. Lula criticized external interference in Brazil’s internal affairs, only weeks ahead of his country’s elections.

“Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country,” Lula said. “Nobody will turn us away from this path.”

Lula railed against what he called weakness in the U.N.’s actions on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and called for reform of the U.N. Security Council, saying that in 2025 alone the world “will see the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II” with “trillions of dollars financing a new arms race.”

“The U.N. is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war,” Lula said. ”Its credibility has never been lower.”

Lula said the U.N. must recover its capacity for dialogue and mediation.

“Concessions to the law of the stronger have surpassed all limits. This is not idealism, but pure realism,” he said. “War is not the continuation of politics by other means; it’s the complete breakdown of politics.”

Lula also addressed the Brazilian economy and said that “despite the massive tariffs against our economy, this year we will break a new export record.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Brazil have escalated since last year, when the U.S. imposed an initial round of tariffs, citing what Trump called a “witch hunt” trial against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Since then, relations between the two countries have become further strained, amid growing allegations of foreign interference in October’s elections in Brazil, in which Lula is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive presidential term.

His main political rival is Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of the former president, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest following his conviction for an attempted coup.