China and its partners in the Brics group of developing countries will increasingly stand up for international co-operation as the US withdraws under President Donald Trump, a top Brazilian diplomat said.
“China and developing nations are today the main defenders of the multilateral system,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s top foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim told the Financial Times in an interview. “What’s fundamental is to have rules which are multilaterally accepted.”
The comments reflect a global trend of countries focusing on relationships that do not involve the US, as Trump imposes blanket tariffs and threatens long-standing allies.