CHANCELLOR Olaf Scholz, after bowing to belligerent pressures from US and Nato war hawks, flew off on his first official trip to Latin America last week. After brief, uneventful courtesy visits to Chile and Argentina he landed in Brazil, hoping to wean the world’s fifth-largest country into the Nato and European cradle – and away from the West’s Russian and Chinese rivals.

The closing press conference with Lula was full of smiles and back-slapping, at first! “We are all happy that Brazil is back on the world stage,” Scholz assured us. But then, suddenly, he got the happiness kicked out from under him.

No, Brazil would not send to Ukraine the desired parts of the German-made Gepard air defence tanks and no ammunition either. Lula declared: “Brazil has no interest in handing over munitions that can be used in the war between Ukraine and Russia. We are a country committed to peace.”