NEW DELHI: Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned his US counterpart Donald Trump against starting a new Cold War and said all countries must be treated equally. Lula was speaking ahead of his departure from India, a day after a bilateral meeting with PM Narendra Modi that saw the two sides signing a pact for cooperation on critical minerals and also exchanging notes on the US Supreme Court judgment that struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.“I want to tell US President Donald Trump that we don’t want a new Cold War. We don’t want to interfere in any other country, we want all countries to be treated equally,” Lula said at a press conference. He is likely to travel to Washington next month to meet Trump. The president lauded the strategic partnership between Brazil and India, describing it as a relationship between peers that shuns the “authoritarianism” often found in negotiations with wealthier nations.Speaking at the India-Brazil Economic Forum, Lula emphasised the deep-rooted similarities between the two countries and their shared vision for growth. Highlighting the unique nature of this bilateral bond, Lula said, “What is really more important is that when we’re talking about a negotiation with a country like India, we are not dealing with a coloniser.” He further observed that unlike dealings with rich countries that often fail to account for the happiness of individual nations, “with India, it’s different”.This balanced power dynamic, where “no one is above the other country”, stems from a mutual understanding of shared needs and attitudes, he said.Lula noted that despite differences in religion and language, there was a profound similarity in the challenges both nations faced. He said this shared perspective made it “much easier for us to work and to establish an action plan” and build partnerships between entrepreneurs from both sides.This ease of collaboration had already resulted in a significant economic trajectory, he added.Since the president’s first visit, trade has surged from $2.4 billion to $10.5 billion. While PM Modi previously established a target of $20 billion by 2030, Lula expressed even greater ambition, stating, “We’ll reach $30 billion of trade.”
