Brazil’s head of diplomacy, Mauro Vieira, told Lusa on Tuesday that President Lula da Silva’s statements about the conflict in Ukraine will not affect his visit to Portugal and that Brazil is “talking to both sides”.
“They do not speak in any way because Brazil talks to both sides. Yesterday we received – I received during a bilateral visit – the Foreign Minister of Russia, Minister Sergei Lavrov, and we also spoke, I have already met the minister [Dmytro] Kuleba, from Ukraine”, began with Mauro Vieira, interrogated by Lusa on the sidelines of his participation in the VIIIth ministerial meeting of the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone (Zopacas), on the Cape Verdean island of São Vicente.
“President Lula has already spoken on the phone with President Zelensky, he has already spoken on the phone with President Putin. And Brazil is a country that wants peace and wants to promote peace and talk to everyone. We have dialogue with all countries,” said the Minister of Brazil’s Foreign Affairs, which leaves Cape Verde for Lisbon at the end of the day.
“So absolutely nothing stands in the way,” he added, regarding the impact of these statements on relations and on Lula da Silva’s visit to Portugal, also stating that the Brazilian head of state is currently unable to travel to Ukraine.
On his return from a visit to China last weekend, Brazil’s president attributed responsibility to the United States of America and the European Union for the escalation of the conflict by supplying arms to Ukraine, drawing criticism from Kiev, from the north – Americans and Europeans.
Lula da Silva on Saturday defended that the United States should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and that the European Union should “start talking about peace”.
Costa downplays Lula da Silva’s positions
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa today downplayed the Brazilian president’s views on the war in Ukraine, refuting that relations between Portugal and Brazil have always stood above differences in foreign policy and that there are also differences between brothers.
When asked whether this controversy over the Ukraine issue could disrupt Lula da Silva’s four-day state visit to Portugal on Saturday, the prime minister began by saying that “Brazil has been independent for 200 years” and that when asked by the other side “Portugal has developed a fraternal friendship relationship with Brazil over 200 years”.
“This relationship of fraternal friendship with Brazil is based on a common history, on a common language, on thousands of Brazilians living in Portugal, thousands of Portuguese living in Brazil, on the intense commercial and political relationship that exists between each other and in fact that we are part of the Community of Lusophone Countries [CPLP]. This is a reality that has existed for 200 years, even if on one occasion or another we had radically different positions, whether in foreign policy or even domestic policy,” said the leader of the Portuguese executive.
In front of journalists, the Prime Minister considered that the Portuguese position on the Russian military intervention in Ukraine is “unambiguous” from the first hours of the invasion by troops from Moscow.
“We have and will continue to support Ukraine from a humanitarian, financial, political and military point of view. Ukraine is a victim of a brutal violation of international law. Countries that our friends, with whom we have fraternal relations, can have,” he continued full .
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will make an official visit to Portugal between the 22nd and 25th, with a scheduled Luso-Brazilian summit and a reception at the Assembly of the Republic on the morning of the 25th.
Source: DN
