The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly opens on Tuesday (22) in New York, amid spreading international conflicts and growing trade disputes. By a tradition held since the 10th session, in 1955, Brazil will be the first country to speak in the general debate. According to Jovem Pan, citing a document shared by the government, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva plans to center his address on the defense of national sovereignty, on negotiation as the way to settle disputes, and on respect for international humanitarian law.
The material guiding the speech describes multilateralism as one of the central lines of Brazilian foreign policy, in a scenario marked by the multiplication of international conflicts. The general debate runs from September 22 to 26 and on the 28th, chaired by the foreign minister of Bangladesh, Khalilur Rahman. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira will stay in New York for the full week of ministerial meetings.
For Brazil, the UN stage arrives at a delicate moment. The interests are clear: Washington demands, in official documents, results against drug trafficking and no "arbitrary" arrests of "political dissidents", while Brasília seeks to reverse the 50% tariffs imposed by the United States and insists on the principle of noninterference in domestic affairs. By taking the dispute to the assembly podium, the government can present the friction as a matter of principle before a global audience, in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, in which Lula is running for reelection.
Tension with Washington
The friction deepened this week. On Tuesday (15), President Donald Trump said, in the annual report on the international fight against drugs sent to the U.S. Congress, that Brazil had "failed" against the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (Red Command, CV), factions that the United States designates as foreign terrorist organizations. According to VEJA, Trump said the two groups had turned the country into "a global cocaine distribution center". On Thursday (17), in another document, he demanded that Brazil not "arbitrarily" arrest or bar "political dissidents" from running in the 2026 presidential election, Jovem Pan reported.
The demand revives an episode from October 2025, when the U.S. government handed Brazil a list of 21 demands during meetings in Washington aimed at reversing the 50% tariffs. The document caused deep discomfort in the Brazilian government, which saw it as direct interference in the country's internal affairs. According to sources cited by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira called the proposal "unacceptable" and ordered that it not even be discussed in formal meetings with U.S. officials.
Meeting with Zohran Mamdani
Also confirmed, for Monday (21), the eve of the opening, is a meeting between Lula and the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. Requested by the mayor himself, it will be the first between the two and will take place at the residence of Ambassador Sérgio Danese, Brazil's representative to the UN, where the president will stay. It is one of the few items set on Lula's agenda in New York, according to VEJA. Mamdani, from the left wing of the Democratic Party and one of Trump's main critics, is the first Muslim to run New York City. Born in Uganda and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018, he opposes mass detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants and, according to VEJA, helped the Brazilian Consulate find a safer polling place for the Brazilian community amid possible actions by ICE, the U.S. immigration police. On the eve of a speech about sovereignty, the meeting shows that Brasília still has interlocutors in the United States beyond the White House. Trump is scheduled to speak right after Lula at the opening of the general debate.