In addition to defending a “political and negotiated solution” to the war, Brazil’s president on Tuesday condemned Ukraine’s “violation of territorial integrity”. It is the first time that Lula da Silva has clearly condemned the invasion of Ukrainian territory by Moscow troops.
The latest statement by Brazil’s president, who is about to begin an official visit to Portugal, comes after criticism from the White House and Brussels when he stated that the US and European Union contributed to the escalation of the conflict by delivering weapons to Kiev.
Lula da Silva’s new statements about the conflict, which has been ongoing since February 24, 2022, were made over lunch at the Itamaraty Palace with Romania’s President Klaus Werner Iohannis.
“While my government condemns the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, we defend a negotiated political solution to the conflict. I spoke about our concerns about the consequences of the war, which extend beyond the European continent,” said the Brazilian president, quoted by Globo’s G1 website.
It should be recalled that after a visit to China, Lula da Silva attributed responsibility for the escalation of the conflict to the United States and the European Union by supplying arms to Ukraine, drawing criticism from Kiev, the North Americans and Europeans.
Most emphatically was White House spokesman John Kirby, who accused Lula da Silva of “talking after” Russian and Chinese propaganda about the war in Ukraine without stopping to study “the facts”.
“It is deeply problematic how Brazil has addressed this issue, both substantively and rhetorically, by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow uninterested in peace or that they share responsibility for war,” Kirby said.
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”.
After organizing a luncheon for the Romanian head of state, a country in NATO, the European Union and part of the Soviet Union, the Brazilian president assured that he had “listened with great interest to President Iohannis’ reflections on the war in Ukraine, a country with which Romania shares more than 600 kilometers of border”.
In the meeting with its Romanian counterpart, the The Brazilian president reiterated the need to “urgently create a group of countries that will try to sit down with both Ukraine and Russia to find peace”.
In the joint statement by the two countries, the heads of state reaffirmed their commitment to international law, the Charter of the United Nations, “the promotion and protection of peace and international security, human rights, commitment to democracy and the rule of law”. “.
In the note from the Brazilian presidency, the two countries stressed the “need to continue, within the scope of the UN, the reform of the United Nations Security Council”, one of the ambitions of Lula da Silva’s new Brazilian foreign policy, which intends to see your country on the board.
The Brazilian head of state will pay an official visit to Portugal between 22 and 25 April. Lula da Silva will participate in the Portuguese-Brazilian summit and will hold a reception at the Assembly of the Republic on the morning of the 25th.
With Lusa
Source: DN
