Photo: screengrab from the official website of Brasil 247

 
By Leonardo Attuch, for Brasil 247

In an exclusive interview with Brasil 247, José Luís Fiori, professor emeritus at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), offers an analysis of the 24th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit and the recent military parade in Beijing. Fiori argues that today’s disorder originates primarily in the West, and a bloc of countries is positioning itself as a stabilizing anchor for the international system, including China. 

Brasil 247 – Professor, you have said that the 24th SCO Summit and the Beijing military parade symbolized the consolidation of a new multipolar order. How do you view this historic moment, and what are its implications for global geopolitics?

Fiori – What became clear after the SCO Summit on August 31 and the Beijing military parade on September 3 is that the disorder and disintegration stem primarily from the West, not from the East, where a bloc of countries is positioning itself as a stabilizing anchor for the international system.

Brasil 247 – Brazil has sought to present itself as a peaceful power and a defender of multilateralism. In this new context, do you believe Brazil should deepen its military and strategic cooperation with several countries, including China ?

Fiori – I think Brazil should diversify its military and strategic cooperation with several countries, including China itself. But I also believe this will be a slow and difficult process. Since World War II — and particularly since the 1952 Military Agreement signed with the US — Brazil’s armed forces have chosen a path of total military dependency on the US.

This dependency extends to all areas: the purchase, use, maintenance and replacement of military equipment; the training of officers; and an automatic ideological alignment with US and NATO positions. It is a relationship of vassalage that reproduces itself almost autonomously, outside the Brazilian government’s control.

Brasil 247 – Xi Jinping has proposed the Global Governance Initiative based on respect for sovereignty, international law and renewed multilateralism. How do you assess this proposal?

Fiori – The United Nations, for example, is currently being undermined and hollowed out by direct US attacks. China, however, proposes to reorganize the UN, with a redefinition of representation and influence for the “rest of the world,” in contrast to the five or six North Atlantic powers that have been accustomed to ruling the globe for the last two or three centuries.

Equally striking is that this Chinese proposal carries no belligerent or revanchist tone. On the contrary, it is an invitation to the West to sit down at the table and redesign the global geopolitical system on equal terms with Eurasia.

(Reported by Brasil 247 on September 23, 2025)