Brazil’s foreign minister defended the country’s relations with Moscow on Monday, dismissing US criticism that Brasília “echos Russian propaganda” about the conflict in Ukraine.
“I don’t know how or why [porta-voz do Conselho de Segurança Nacional dos EUA] came to that conclusion. But I don’t agree at all”Mauro Vieira told journalists in Brasília, where Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The United States said on Monday that Brazil is repeating Russian and Chinese propaganda “without regard to the facts”, after Brazil’s president accused Washington and the European Union (EU) of prolonging the conflict in Ukraine and hours after Vieira said it was are the sanctions against Russia, during a press conference in Brasília together with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
“In this particular case, Brazil is repeating Russian and Chinese propaganda, without regard to the facts”said John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, a body directly affiliated with the US president.
On Saturday, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended that the United States should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and that the EU should “start talking about peace”.
In this way, the international community will be able to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky that “peace is in the interest of the whole world,” he added.
“Patience is Required” to talk to Putin and Zelensky, he said. “But above all, we have to convince the countries that supply weapons, that encourage war, to stop,” he said.
Lula da Silva spoke at the end of a visit to the United Arab Emirates, after a visit to China.
The Portuguese head of state responded to the controversy on Monday, recalling Brazil’s positions at the UN on the war in Ukraine until February, with Lula already in the presidency, “alongside Portugal, the EU, the US, NATO, against the Russian Federation “.
Speaking to journalists, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa asked on the sidelines of the Pessoa awards ceremony at Lisbon’s Culturgest whether Brazil had changed its position, insisting that Portugal had not changed but had already downplayed its foreign policy differences.
The President of the Republic argued that the state visit that Lula da Silva will pay to Portugal from April 22 to 25 “it has nothing to do with the position on Ukraine, nor with internal controversies”and dismissed any regrets for inviting his counterpart: “No, I regretted nothing.”
Regarding the war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa claimed that “the Brazilian position has been very consistent so far” in the UN framework, with only one abstention, in April 2022, when Russia voted to suspend the Human Rights Council.
Using a document detailing the votes at the UN, the head of state referred to Brazil “voting for non-recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine” and “returning to vote, still in the mandate of the [anterior] president [Jair] Bolsonaro, that Russia should be held responsible for the violations.”
“And, already with President Lula, in February he asked for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine”marked, concluding: “That is, the Brazilian position in the United Nations has always been the same: alongside Portugal, the European Union, the United States of America, NATO, against the Russian Federation”.
Source: DN
