This article reviews the trajectory of international cooperation in the light of the adjustments made at the leading international conferences on the topic (Buenos Aires, 1978; Rome, 2003; Paris, 2005; Accra, 2008; and Busan, 2011). This article aligns these new approaches with the practices Fiocruz has adopted, such as “structural cooperation in health,” namely a diplomatic approach that includes various aspects raised at the aforementioned international conferences oriented towards supporting health systems as a whole. The new approach does not focus exclusively on specific diseases or health issues and addresses health from the perspective of its biological, social and environmental determinants.