Opinions on Brazil developing nuclear weapons

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1. Yesterday I came across an interview with a Brazilian minister suggesting the country might need to rethink its stance on developing nuclear weapons for the sake of sovereignty. What do you guys think about Brazil developing nukes strictly for defensive purposes?

   Honestly, I’d never even considered this seriously before. Brazil is a peaceful country, no territorial or ethnic disputes, no traditional enemies.
   But the world feels different now. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the inability of Western powers to decisively respond to Russian aggression. And after Trump came back into office… it’s like the whole game changed. Not just the rules, the game itself. His 50% tariffs on Brazil make zero economic sense, and he openly framed them as political blackmail: drop the legal cases against Bolsonaro, remove a Supreme Court justice, and scrap Big Tech regulations. On top of that, US warships and jets are now sitting close to Venezuela, and airstrikes there seem like a real possibility.

   There’s also the fact that Brazil has massive natural wealth, especially rare earth minerals, we’re second only to China.
   For decades, Brazil’s strong diplomacy gave us some sense of safety. But lately diplomacy feels dead, what used to be state policy now looks like short-term government deals, or just nothing at all.

   So here’s my question: are we heading into a world (or rather re-entering to) where the only real guarantee of sovereignty is military strength?

   And if Brazil were to go down that path, what kind of international backlash would we be looking at?

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