Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva has said the United States need to stop ‘encouraging war’ in Ukraine, as he ended a state visit to China to strengthen economic ties with his country’s main trading partner.
Lula seized the opportunity of the trip to announce that, ‘Brazil is back’ as an active player in the global stage.
During the trip to China, the left-wing leader lashed out at the power of the US dollar and the IMF, and met representatives from Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has been effectively shut out of the US market.
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“The United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace. The European Union needs to start talking about peace,” Lula told reporters in Beijing.
In that way, the international community will be able to “convince” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that “peace is in the interest of the whole world”, he said, before leaving for the United Arab Emirates.
Unlike Western powers, neither China nor Brazil has imposed sanctions against Moscow over Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Both seek to position themselves as mediators to achieve peace in the conflict, which is still raging in Ukraine’s east.
Before the trip, Lula had proposed creating a group of countries to mediate in the war, and said he would discuss this in Beijing.
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Asked about the progress of this initiative after his conversation with Xi, Lula did not give details.
“It is important to have patience, to talk with Putin and Zelensky”, he said.
“But above all, it is necessary to convince the countries that are supplying weapons, encouraging the war, to stop.”
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