Portugal’s foreign minister stated that Lula da Silva’s phrase “when one doesn’t want, two don’t fight”, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “unfortunately doesn’t apply”.
“The expression when one doesn’t want, two don’t fight, unfortunately doesn’t apply”, said João Gomes Cravinho at a press conference in Brasília, at the Itamaraty Palace, next to Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira. João Gomes Cravinho referred to the sentence of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, before the German Chancellor, during an official visit to Brasilia, after stating that Brazil has no interest in supplying ammunition to Ukraine.
War, the Portuguese minister stressed, exists “because one side wanted it”.
Brazil, under both Jair Bolsonaro and now Lula da Silva, has taken a passive stance on the invasion of Ukraine. Brasilia condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations (UN), but took no economic sanctions against Moscow. Last year, Lula da Silva was criticized for saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “equally responsible” for the conflict as Vladimir Putin.
Lula da Silva herself even appeared last year on a list of personalities accused of promoting Russian propaganda, drawn up by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation. Still, João Gomes Cravinho was pleased that Brazil had returned to the “first international scene” with Lula da Silva and that this could help end the conflict.
During the press conference, and questioned on the subject, Brazil’s foreign minister insisted that Brazil is a country of peace and that in discussions of war there should be “space to negotiate peace”.
Regarding the vote in the UN General Assembly, where it is set to vote next Thursday on a resolution calling for the “immediate withdrawal” of Russian troops from Ukraine, Mauro Vieira said negotiations are still ongoing and he wants a paragraph including calls for a “cessation of hostilities”.
At the beginning of the month, Lula da Silva defended the creation of a group of countries to participate in a mediation to end the war in Ukraine, a kind of G20, where countries such as India, Brazil, Indonesia and China be part of. .
In recent weeks, especially with the visit of the German Chancellor and the French Foreign Minister to Brasilia and Lula da Silva’s visit to Washington to meet Joe Biden, the calls of these countries for a position more in line has been intensified with the West. .
Source: DN
