O Oriente Médio na Agenda Brasileira de Cooperação Sul-Sul (2000-2020)

This article aims to identify the Middle East in the Brazilian agenda (2000-2020) of South-South Cooperation, a tool that is overexploited by Brazilian diplomacy as a source of soft power. The countries of the Middle East represent an important destination for Brazilian agricultural products, a strategic sector of economies that export primary products. As a method of analysis, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency repository, the collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and academic articles were explored. The relationship that, until then, was only migratory and cultural, has gained political and economic notoriety since the 1970s. Brazil has approached, in an unprecedented and strategic way, Arab countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Libya to protect itself from an important energy vulnerability. However, due to different variables, the relationship deteriorated from the mid-1980s. The work concludes that the rise of President Lula da Silva was essential for the introduction of the Middle East in the Brazilian agenda of South-South Cooperation. The rapprochement with the Middle East reappears in the 2000s with the role of President Lula in the creation of the South America – Arab Countries Summit (ASPA) and in the strengthening of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency. However, it was noticed that political and economic relations with the Middle East are losing their intensity even in the first government of President Dilma Rousseff, due to a deep political and economic crisis that devastated Brazil. Since then, the Middle East has lost prominence in Brazilian Foreign Policy, especially with regard to South-South Cooperation.