GLOBAL CENTRE STAGE
THE
G-7 SUMMIT
SOVEREIGNTISM VS.
INTERNATIONALISM
BY HALL GARDNER*
T
he Biarritz G-7
summit began with an
apocalyptic warning
from its host, French President
Emmanuel Macron, who
exclaimed “Our house is
burning. Literally.” Macron
t h e n s e t a n e m e rg e n c y
agenda for the G-7 summit
after castigating Brazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro for
not safeguarding the Amazon
rainforest – “the lungs which
produces 20% of our planet’s
oxygen” in Macron’s words.
Despite the fact that Macron
scored very high for bringing
global attention to a major
environmental catastrophe that
impacts Brazil, the Amazon
region, and life on this
planet, the dispute between
France and Brazil illustrated
the tensions between neo-
liberal internationalism and
the fl ames of nationalism and
sovereigntism that now plague
the G-7, the European Union
(EU), and other international
organizations.
Macron had threatened not
to sign the world’s largest free
trade accord, the Mercusor
agreement between the EU
and Brazil, plus Argentina,
Paraguay and Uruguay — in
an eff ort to pressure Brazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro to
stop the fi res and protect the
Amazon rain forest from
excessive destruction. In
response, Bolsonaro claimed
Macron was interfering in
Brazil’s sovereign aff airs —
even though the Mercusor
agreement explicitly demands
its signatories to commit to
environmental protection.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 29