The general debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly opens on Tuesday, September 22, in New York, under the theme "Restore trust, manage transformation: a United Nations that serves all people". By long-standing tradition, Brazil speaks first, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will open the speeches of heads of state.
Aides told G1, the news portal of Brazil's Globo network, that the text is not final, but it will defend Brazilian sovereignty and criticize what the government sees as foreign attempts to interfere in the electoral process. Lula is not expected to name the United States or President Donald Trump. The messages, according to aides, will reach not only Washington but also other countries Lula believes are trying to influence Brazil's election, such as Argentina and Israel.
What is at stake for Brazil
The speech comes less than two weeks before the first round of Brazil's October presidential election, in which Lula, of the Workers' Party, is running for reelection, and it turns the UN podium into another front of the campaign. His team sees the United States as the biggest threat to his reelection, above all because it is home to the big tech companies and because of Washington's weight in geopolitics. The election will not be the central theme of the address, but the government believes the subject gained relevance because, in the assessment of Brazilian diplomacy, "democracy and multilateralism are under attack".
Ties between the two countries have been marked by new US tariffs on Brazilian products and by Trump's statements against the conviction of former president Jair Bolsonaro. So far there is no move toward a formal meeting between Lula and Trump on the margins of the Assembly. The expectation is that they will cross paths in the corridors, as they did last year, when Trump said the two had "chemistry". In recent days, Lula has said he will tell Trump again that he does not accept US interference in Brazilian elections.
The Mamdani meeting
One of the few confirmed items on the agenda is a meeting with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, on Monday morning at the residence of ambassador Sergio Danese, Brazil's representative to the UN. Mamdani requested the meeting, and it would only be dropped in case of a major unforeseen event, according to Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil's leading newspapers. Aides argue there is no reason to treat the encounter as a provocation, since Trump himself hosted Mamdani at the White House in 2025.
In office since January, Mamdani has become, in the assessment of Folha, the public figure best placed to challenge Trump inside the United States: his administration criticizes operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and opposes US policy on Israel. Born in Uganda, he cannot run for US president. Lula's trip will be short. He arrives in New York on Sunday, holds bilateral meetings on Monday, and leaves right after his speech, with an interview to CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour in between, according to the news site Vermelho.