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trading partner in the region, Argentina, were considerably strained by Brazil’sunilateral decision to float its currency in 1999. Nonetheless, Lula’s first trip abroadas President-elect in December 2002, was to Argentina, followed by Chile. This wassucceeded by meetings with George W. Bush in the US and Vicente Fox of Mexicoby year’s end. 584 In terms of a ‘regional balance of power’, an opportunity had beencreated by US preoccupation with its ‘war on terror’ at that stage confined toAfghanistan, and its subsequent heightened militarization of relations in SouthAmerica. Brazil was in no position to capitalise on this opportunity for leadership,however. The outgoing administration had been lukewarm toward the mooted FreeTrade Area of the Americas, and yet it struggled to instigate progress on its ownpreferred option for regional integration, MERCOSUL. This was owing toArgentina’s financial weakness, and Brazil’s own foot-dragging on institutionalisingMERCOSUL as a customs union. This was not unusual for Brazil, however, as ithad not shown much interest in its immediate region historically. 585 The regionbecame increasingly significant as the 1990s and 2000s wore on, however, as Brazilhad made South American integration one of the cornerstones of its foreign policy,beginning with the Collor administration.Thus, overall, the Brazilian government under PT had some difficulty in the earlypart of Lula’s first administration in mobilising national resources for any purposes,let alone foreign policy. While Lula’s popular mandate was large, and his personalpopularity by far exceeded that of PT from the start, his ability to convert this intoresource mobilisation and extraction capability was hampered by the political,economic and international contexts of his arrival at the Planalto Palace.In these four years of Lula’s first administration, Brazil sought ontological securityas a country of the developing world. By this is meant that Brazil identified with thedeveloping world in a number of significant gestures. First, it voiced its stridentopinion on the US operation in Iraq, one of the most vocal voices in this regard.This was tempered by a strong position on Iraq’s failure to comply with earlier UNresolutions. It was outspoken on the Israel-Palestine question, became an observerat the League of Arab States, and also started opening new embassies in Africa, in584 Ministerio dos Relacoes Exteriores. 2006. Chronology of Events: Lula Presidency.585 Leslie Bethell, “Brazil and ‘Latin America’”, Journal of Latin American Studies, 42,(2010).229