“For the first time, I am going to include the issue of national defence in a government programme so that we can make a public commitment,” he said.

Lula stressed that Brazil has no intention of threatening other countries but said it could not afford to be unprepared.

He questioned the commitment of major powers to nuclear disarmament and pointed to military expansion by countries including Pakistan, India, China and the United States .

“It is full of madmen in the world. Right now, the president of the United States wants to keep Greenland and says that Canada is going to become a state. He wants to take the Panama Canal,” Lula said.

The president added that Brazil should recognise its size and strategic importance within Latin America .

He said he did not want war but also did not want Brazil “to be caught by surprise.”

Lula is seeking re-election in October and is expected to face right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. National security has emerged as a key issue in the campaign, with Bolsonaro focusing his proposals on tougher measures against organised crime and drug trafficking.

A series of strong earthquakes struck multiple regions across the globe within 12 hours, with the strongest a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the coast of the southern Philippines.

The USGS recorded 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher during the period, affecting countries across Asia, Oceania, Central America and the Caribbean. The events ranged from magnitude 4.6 to 6.5, highlighting the concentration of seismic activity along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where tectonic plates frequently interact.

The largest event was a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck 34 kilometres west-southwest of Sarangani, Philippines, at a depth of 42 kilometres.

The quake occurred in a region that is among the world's most seismically active due to the interaction of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The USGS assigned the event a Green PAGER alert, indicating that widespread fatalities or major economic losses were unlikely.

The tremor came less than three weeks after a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Mindanao on June 8, underscoring the region's continued seismic activity.

Japan recorded two earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5 during the same period.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Yokoshiba at a depth of 43 kilometres, followed later by a magnitude 5.7 event near Oshino at 50.9 kilometres depth, according to the USGS.

Japan sits atop the convergence of four major tectonic plates and experiences thousands of earthquakes each year, making it one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

Elsewhere, the USGS recorded:

Most of these earthquakes occurred along active plate boundaries, particularly around the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped belt that accounts for roughly 90% of the world's earthquakes and about 75% of active volcanoes, according to the USGS.

Why earthquakes cluster along the Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire stretches around the Pacific Ocean through the Americas, East Asia and Oceania. Continuous movement of tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes as plates collide, separate or slide past one another.

Countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand routinely experience significant seismic activity because they lie directly on these plate boundaries.