Brazil and the United Kingdom

Every year, in mid-June, London hosts a series of events seeking solutions to global climate change, with a particular focus on financing projects to help nations tackle one of humanity’s greatest challenges. In 2025, the spotlight at London Climate Action Week (LCAW) fell on Brazil, ahead of the decisions to be made in Belém during the 30th United Nations Climate Conference (COP30) in November. This year’s LCAW was particularly intense, largely due to the waning of its New York counterpart, now in retreat following the US government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

Against this backdrop, in which investors, political figures, scientists, NGOs and civil society were invited to voice their views, Brazil aligned itself with the British government and private sector. More than that, it sent a clear message that it remains a driving force for creative responses to climate issues, fulfilling its responsibilities on the multilateral stage and acting as a pioneer in initiatives that could serve as models for other nations. With the Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva, Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara and COP30 President-Designate Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago in attendance, Brazil made it clear in London that the costs of inaction will be high if we fail to engage fully in the implementation of climate agreements. Brazil also made clear that such action is fully backed by the importance President Lula attaches to the issue–an importance that reflects the aspirations of the Brazilian people.

At several points, LCAW 2025 struck a celebratory tone towards Brazil, providing a valuable opportunity for the country to show its true colours. In my view, not only was the opportunity fully seized, it can also be seen as a fitting prelude to the commemoration of 200 years of diplomatic relations between Brazil and the United Kingdom. The convergence of environmental and climate priorities achieved between Brazilians and Britons bodes well for COP30 in Belém. It was a demonstration that countries of the so-called Global South and those of the G7 need not find themselves on opposing sides of negotiations that, ultimately, will affect the entire planet, especially younger generations.

Brazil’s presence at London Climate Action Week extended beyond official events and substantive debates. One of the most striking moments was the fashion show (re)weaving Amazonia, held in one of the most central areas of the British capital, King’s Cross. It showcased the creativity of designers from the Amazon region, including indigenous communities. Sustainably produced clothing and accessories were presented as part of the Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow project, an initiative led by Camila Villas, Lilian Pacce and Marilia Biasi.

The presence of Brazilian fashion in the United Kingdom is, of course, nothing new. On the contrary, a walk down London’s best-known high streets reveals how ties between Brazil and the United Kingdom have also been deepening in this area, in ways that defy the usual perceptions of a South American nation’s presence in major European capitals. No one finds it odd for a paulistano–a São Paulo native–to fill a shopping trolley with Unilever products, fill up their car at a Shell petrol station, or enjoy a dram of Scottish whisky from a Diageo distillery. Allowing for differences in the scale of investments and company size, it is increasingly evident that Brazil has entered British daily life in ways that go beyond the traditional commodity trade, where the end consumer rarely knows the origin of what they purchase.

On the elegant Marylebone High Street, one can shop at the Rio-based boutique Farm (known abroad as Farm Rio), browse accessories at Treasures of Brazil, and then stop for a bite at Açaí Amazon, not forgetting a cup of single-origin Brazilian coffee. On Carnaby Street, in central Soho, near another Farm branch, Havaianas flip-flops are advertised on large posters featuring the Palestinian-American supermodel Gigi Hadid. A little further south, on the King’s Road in Chelsea, alongside Brazilian fashion and cuisine, one can buy Granado cosmetics in one of its shops that recreate the original décor of the century-old perfumery.

The presence of Brazilian brands abroad is nothing new. What has changed in recent years, however, is the growth of initiatives aimed at local consumers and accompanied by a measure of cultural soft power. It is rare to find another country from the Global South that combines these traits. Indeed, as Tyler Brûlé–founder of the forward-thinking magazine Monocle, based in Marylebone–once remarked, amongst the BRICS nations, Brazil is the one where most people would like to live.

Monocle, incidentally, offers another example of the United Kingdom’s growing interest in Brazil. A style reference with a global outlook, this British publication frequently reports on a nation that demonstrates the ability to blend informality with innovation. On the occasions I have been interviewed by the magazine, I have noticed a keen interest in our rare combination of being a large emerging country with firmly democratic institutions, and which, despite its complexities, is endowed with a humanistic spirit marked by tolerance and inclusivity.

Amidst the global expansion of Brazilian brands, the United Kingdom has served as a privileged testing ground. It is worth noting that over the past two decades, contact between the two countries has intensified and now stands at a moment of promising convergence. Brazilians and Britons are pulling in the same direction on key international issues. Beyond the climate agenda, both nations value multilateralism and international law, forming what once might have seemed an unlikely alliance to those accustomed to historic misalignments. In times of uncertainty and instability, the two countries have turned to diplomacy and creativity in seeking solutions to shared challenges.

It must be acknowledged that it has not always been plain sailing. Bilateral relations have faced difficult times, particularly during the nineteenth century. No Brazilian finishes secondary school without hearing of the notorious Christie Question, which led to the severing of diplomatic relations between 1863 and 1865. Many other contentious episodes are bound up with the tragic history of slavery and the trafficking of enslaved Africans to the Americas. Intense commercial and financial ties were once marked by dependency and subordination. Beyond the highs and lows of this journey, attention should now turn to the ongoing transition, which could be described as the end of the “age of asymmetry” and the consolidation of a new relationship between two regionally powerful and globally influential actors.

In 1825, contact between the two countries was characterised by a vast disparity in power and capacity for projection, both in relative and absolute terms. On one side stood the world’s greatest power at the time, the seat of “the empire on which the sun never sets”. On the other, a young nation still in search of its own identity, endowed with vast territory but cautiously feeling its way on the international stage in the exercise of its sovereignty. Independence had been proclaimed by Dom Pedro I three years earlier and was already recognised domestically, as well as by other countries of the so-called New World. However, this was not enough. Recognition from Europe’s centres of power was still needed, for both political and commercial reasons, and was essential to the economic viability of the new state, which was striving to transcend its colonial dynamics.

Amongst those centres, none was more important than Great Britain. Recognition by London could set in motion a process that would consolidate Brazil’s full participation in the Concert of Nations. It also offered protection against potential invasions and other anachronistic neocolonial ventures.

Maintaining good relations was likewise a priority for the Court of St James’s. With an estimated 4.5 million inhabitants in 1825, Brazil represented a promising market for British exports, whose home population was three times larger. Trade had been boosted since 1808 and 1810, with the opening of Brazilian ports and a commercial treaty between London and Lisbon that granted preferential tariffs to British goods. These special terms were, in essence, payment for British protection and the safe relocation of the Portuguese royal family to Rio de Janeiro following the Napoleonic invasions.

It was unlikely, therefore, that British recognition would be secured without Lisbon’s agreement. In a symbolic reflection of the prevailing asymmetry of power, the solution reached was for the new Empire of Brazil to pay two million pounds sterling to the Kingdom of Portugal as compensation. The financial arrangement was itself ingenious: the newborn Brazilian state lacked such a sum and had to seek financing from English banks. The funds never even needed to leave Britain.

Trade between the two countries continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century. It is telling that on the first page of the inaugural issue of The Economist in 1843, the lead article advocated the swift renewal of Britain’s trade treaty with “the Brazils”, then about to expire. “[It is] a subject of more importance than any other at this moment to our trading, and, we may add, to our social existence,” read the text, which reported how favourable the tariff conditions secured in Brazil were to the British, especially when compared with those applied by other countries such as the United States.

By the mid-nineteenth century, direct investment in Brazil had also begun, marked by the expansion of the railways and the arrival of banks financing major infrastructure projects and part of the country’s then fledgling industrialisation, most notably the ventures of the Baron of Mauá. Whilst the French dominated the export of luxury goods consumed by local elites, the British positioned themselves strategically in introducing the technological advances most relevant at the time, such as steam engines and textile manufacturing methods.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom’s commercial and investment presence in Brazil was in decline, gradually giving way to that of the United States and Germany. Yet British culture continued to find an eager audience amongst Brazilians.

A particularly striking example of this enduring cultural influence is that of Machado de Assis. Amidst a literary environment of Latin roots and pronounced Francophile leanings, he stood out for his command of English and his incorporation of influences from Shakespeare, Dickens and the Anglo-Irish writer Laurence Sterne, who is explicitly mentioned in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Since the American critic Harold Bloom included Machado de Assis in his early-2000s list of the hundred greatest literary geniuses, his books have been gaining new readers in English-speaking countries. This trend, reflected in the growing body of scholarship on Machado’s work in British universities, may be regarded as an example of “cross-pollination” between British and Brazilian cultures.

In the visual arts, the allied participation of Brazilian and British troops in the Second World War was recorded not only in official reports and press coverage, but also through the Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, which toured eight British museums in 1944. Whilst raising funds for the troops fighting against Nazi fascism, the exhibition showcased works by some of the leading figures in Brazilian modernism, such as Tarsila do Amaral, Candido Portinari, Lasar Segall, Alfredo Volpi and Roberto Burle Marx. In 2025, the Brasil, Brasil! exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts paid tribute to that wartime initiative.

British modernism, in turn, found a warm reception in Brazil, particularly through the work of sculptor Barbara Hepworth. The English artist was celebrated in Brazil when she won the top prize at the São Paulo Biennial in 1959. Her bronze sculpture Cantate Domino is regarded as one of the most important pieces in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo.

Another noteworthy milestone came with the music of the 1960s. The global impact of the rock bands of the “British Invasion” was strongly felt in Brazil, particularly in the larger urban centres. Songs by the Beatles and their contemporaries influenced countless singers and musicians who, on an unprecedented scale, began appearing on television with electric guitars, performing Portuguese-language versions of British chart hits–complete with matching hairdos.

There was, however, resistance from more conservative circles to the arrival of British rock. From 1967 onwards, artists such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil challenged conventions through the Tropicália movement, demonstrating how “iê-iê-iê” (as the Beatles’ pop-rock was known in Brazil) could be one of the ingredients in an artistic experiment that also incorporated rhythms such as baião and música caipira to produce new sounds. This was the era of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which would lead Caetano and Gil into exile in London, where they composed songs imbued with melancholy and introspection. Their London experience left lasting lyrical and musical traces on their work, exposing them to the city’s counterculture and multiculturalism, including reggae, which they encountered through contact with the Caribbean diaspora. Tropicália was also embraced in the United Kingdom in its visual dimension, through the works of Hélio Oiticica.

It is worth remembering, too, that the Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty (FLIP, or Paraty International Literary Festival), arguably the most prestigious event of its kind in Brazil, was inspired by the Hay Festival, held annually in the village of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, which I attended last May.

As the travels of British explorers and scientists through South America demonstrate, Brazil has long occupied a special place in the British imagination, shaped by its geography and lush natural environment. Notable visitors include Maria Graham, Richard Francis Burton, Percy Fawcett and Charles Darwin. Burton, perhaps the most renowned explorer of the Victorian age, served as consul in Santos (São Paulo) from 1865 to 1869. During that period, he visited several regions of central and northeastern Brazil, even travelling down the River São Francisco by canoe. He also made two visits to the battlefields of the Paraguayan War, recording his experiences in The Highlands of Brazil and Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay.

Fawcett, in his search for a legendary lost Amazonian city in what is now the state of Mato Grosso, vanished without a trace after crossing the Upper Xingu. His adventures continue to inspire books, magazines and films to this day, and even helped inspire the character of Indiana Jones.

Maria Graham and Charles Darwin likewise left vivid accounts of their visits to Brazil. Both travelled there after slavery had been abolished in the territories of the British Empire. Their impressions cannot be separated from the contrast they described between their wonder at the country’s natural beauty and their horror at a society still built on slavery. Graham, who would become a friend of Empress Maria Leopoldina and an unofficial chronicler of the Rio de Janeiro court, was captivated by the beauty of Guanabara Bay, but wept when she saw the Valongo Wharf, the former slave market of Rio de Janeiro.

Darwin disembarked from HMS Beagle in Salvador, where he made his first foray into a tropical forest. He described the visit as a “chaos of delights for the mind”, though he also condemned the treatment of people of African descent. Later, his observations of Bahia’s fauna and flora would become essential elements in the development of his theory of evolution.

Darwin’s legacy is now preserved at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which maintains scientific partnerships with several Brazilian institutions, particularly the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden. The London-based institution is currently led by Brazilian scientist Alexandre Antonelli, its Director of Science, and holds the largest collection of Brazilian plant specimens outside Brazil–around 250,00 plants–alongside a rich archive of artistic prints and materials gathered over three centuries of British expeditions.

Equally noteworthy is the scientific partnership between Brazil and the United Kingdom under the AmazonFACE project, a research programme designed to understand how rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide affect the Amazon rainforest. At a research station near Manaus, a large-scale field experiment is advancing understanding on how the world’s largest tropical forest operates amid the pressures of climate change.

This November, Prince William will visit Rio de Janeiro. The city was chosen by the heir to the British throne as the venue for the 2025 edition of the Earthshot Prize ceremony, an initiative he conceived to support inspiring environmental projects around the world. The event will take place shortly before the opening of COP30, when the convergence between Brazil and the United Kingdom may further deepen, fostering broad intersectoral cooperation. Both countries act as facilitators of consensus in formulating new climate-finance goals–an essential area needed to support global climate action without increasing the debt burden on developing nations.

In view of this, it is worth highlighting the United Kingdom’s support for the creation of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a financial mechanism conceived by Brazil to provide permanent and predictable remuneration for developing countries that keep their tropical forests standing. In the field of climate finance, the governments of Brazil and the United Kingdom have been working together to build support for the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T”, which aims to mobilise USD 1.3 trillion annually in international financial flows by 2035, drawing on both public and private sources.

Brazil and the United Kingdom were amongst the first countries to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the public commitments each nation makes to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. We have worked together to raise the level of ambition of these NDCs, encouraging other nations to set targets covering all sectors of the economy and all greenhouse gases.

On the economic front, according to data from Brazil’s Central Bank, the United Kingdom accounts for roughly 5% of foreign direct investment in the country, with stock exceeding USD 52 billion. JCB, for instance, a manufacturer of heavy machinery and equipment for construction and agriculture, recently expanded its operations at its plant in Sorocaba, São Paulo. In the financial sector, banks such as Standard Chartered continue to expand their activities, whilst in the technology sector, Brazilian start-ups are forging partnerships with British counterparts, particularly in the fintech field.

Innovation and sustainability projects have been driving economic and financial collaboration. In 2023 and 2024, Brazil issued Sustainable Sovereign Bonds on the London Stock Exchange, a decision that reflects both Brazil’s credibility and the attractiveness of London’s financial market. British expertise in green bonds, combined with Brazil’s potential in renewable energy, is creating opportunities to finance low-carbon projects.

Cooperation in science, technology and innovation offers emblematic examples of what Brazilians and Britons can achieve when joining forces in pursuit of shared goals. In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, at a time of great global anxiety, Brazil took part in the development plan for the vaccine created by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Brazil was the first country, after the United Kingdom, to conduct clinical trials in humans, beginning in June 2020. The partnership subsequently advanced with the acquisition of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the transfer of technology for vaccine production at the Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz laboratory.

Today, the asymmetries between the two countries are diminishing. Both economies rank amongst the world’s ten largest and are regularly called to the same negotiating tables in search of solutions to global challenges, such as within the G20. As vibrant multi-ethnic democracies, upon closer examination of one another, they confirm Gilberto Freyre’s prediction in The English in Brazil: namely that once superficial impressions are overcome, Brazilians and Britons discover far more affinities and complementarities than one might expect at first glance.

A symbol of this new era was the rapprochement initiated in 2003 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with his counterparts. It was during that same period that the United Kingdom publicly endorsed Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council–a stance that continues to be upheld by successive occupants of 10 Downing Street, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterating the United Kingdom’s support for Brazil before the UN General Assembly.

No account of the relationship between Brazil and the United Kingdom would be complete without mention of sport. A milestone of modern collaboration was reached in 2012 with the transfer of expertise from the London Olympic Games to the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro. The opening ceremony was attended by President Dilma Rousseff and, during the closing ceremony, Rio took centre stage with memorable performances, including that of singer Marisa Monte, marking the start of four years of close cooperation between the organising teams.

Gilberto Freyre had already pointed to the fusion embodied by what came to be known as futebol-arte–artistic football–when Brazilians gave the sport invented in Britain “the curves and grace of dance, with steps and dribbles its inventors could never have imagined”. Did that make football any less British? Not at all, Freyre argued, concluding that in its most triumphant expression, football had become an Anglo-Afro-Brazilian game.

President Dilma’s visit to London in 2012 also marked the inauguration of the new premises of the Brazilian Embassy, on Cockspur Street. After occupying rented buildings for several decades, the Brazilian government invested in the purchase of its own property for its official representation in the very heart of the British capital. The building is currently undergoing extensive renovation, due for completion in 2026, to accommodate the Consulate-General at the same address.

The importance of Brazil’s relationship with the United Kingdom was once again underscored in May 2023, when President Lula travelled to London for the coronation of King Charles III. Building on a shared commitment to international law, multilateralism and universal human rights, Brazil and the United Kingdom have also shown a common dedication to social progress and the fight against inequality–a commitment exemplified by the United Kingdom’s timely accession to the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, launched by Brazil during its G20 presidency in November 2024.

The 2025-2030 Strategic Partnership Plan will usher in a more ambitious medium-term collaboration. Key developments include the establishment of a mechanism for dialogue and coordination on multilateral issues, as well as joint efforts to build a more effective international financial system in supporting the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Initiatives to combat transnational organised crime will also be strengthened, alongside enhanced cooperation in education and joint training. I would also highlight the launch, in the second half of 2025, of the British Cultural Season in Brazil and the Brazilian Cultural Season in the United Kingdom, with a joint calendar of numerous artistic events running until June 2026.

Efforts will also be made to create a new instrument for consular dialogue, with a view to enhancing cooperation on issues that affect the daily lives of visitors and, in particular, the sizeable Brazilian diaspora residing in the United Kingdom. This community is currently estimated at 230,000 people–the second largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. The growing number of Brazilians requiring consular services led Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2022, to expand its network in the United Kingdom and open a Consulate-General in Edinburgh, in addition to the one in London.

Today, collaboration between Brazil and the United Kingdom extends into areas that go beyond traditional stereotypes, notably the two countries’ public health systems. As is well known, Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) was originally inspired by the British National Health Service (NHS). Yet now, as the NHS faces challenges in primary care, it has looked to Brazil’s own experience, particularly the work of community health agents, for inspiration in improving services, especially for lower-income groups and the elderly.

Renowned figures in Brazilian history spent some of the most significant periods of their lives in the United Kingdom, benefitting greatly from their contact with British culture, the economy and the ideas generated within its society. There is abundant historical material on the years spent in the United Kingdom of distinguished Brazilian diplomats such as the Baron of Rio Branco and Joaquim Nabuco. Their names embody an optimistic vision that the current expansion of bilateral ties may inspire new and fruitful, individual and collective experiences in both countries.

One can therefore envisage a time when Britons and Brazilians alike will increasingly reap the benefits from this “cross-pollinatio –the old asymmetry giving way, naturally and creatively, to exchanges as beautiful as a João Pedro goal for Chelsea or an Alisson save for Liverpool; as captivating as a Lennon and McCartney song belted at the top of their lungs by a Maracanã crowd.

I conclude this reflection on the bicentenary of Brazil-United Kingdom relations with one final reference to Barbara Hepworth. Her commitment to peace brought her close to United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in the 1950s–an affinity later expressed in the installation of her sculpture Single Form, a posthumous tribute to Hammarskjöld, in front of the UN Secretariat building in New York, whose architectural design included the contribution of Oscar Niemeyer. This very circumstance reflects the shared British and Brazilian commitment to multilateralism and world peace. During a recent visit to a retrospective of Hepworth’s work at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, I came across one of her reflections on that sculpture: “This single stone (Single Form) signifies our aspiration for survival and security. We must overcome old concepts of power, war and destruction, and adopt instead another vision capable of fostering a constructive harmony amongst all human beings”. These words resonate deeply with the humanism that inspires Brazil’s foreign policy.

Received: September 19, 2025
Accepted for publication: September 25, 2025

Copyright © 2025 CEBRI-Revista. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original article is properly cited.