The president of Brazil said that he cannot travel “at this time”, although he reiterated his willingness to mediate in the talks “in search of peace” with Ukraine.
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvarevealed this Saturday that he had a telephone conversation with the Russian president, Vladimir Putinin which he declined an invitation to travel to Moscow “at this time”, although he reiterated his willingness to mediate in the talks “in search of peace” with Ukraine.
“I just spoke on the phone with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. I thanked him for an invitation to go to the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, and I replied that I could not go to Russia at the moment, but I reiterated Brazil’s willingness, together with with India, Indonesia and China, to dialogue with both sides of the conflict in pursuit of peace,” Lula wrote on Twitter.
Putin, for his part, highlighted after the conversation that “Brazil is Russia’s main trade and economic partner in Latin America,” according to the Russian news agency Sputnik.
He also stressed that “Although the volume of business between the two countries decreased slightly due to the difficulties, in general the potential is very good, and last year was a record”.
The conversation took place a week after Lula visited Japan to participate as a guest in a meeting of the G7 (the most developed economies). There, the Brazilian president condemned the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and regretted that neither of the two countries in conflict was willing to talk about peace at that time.
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Stock image.
In that same appointment, The president had planned to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski, but the meeting was frustrated due to his scheduling problems.
The Brazilian president has always been reluctant to condemn Russia’s incursion into Ukraine and caused some controversy last month by declaring that the United States should stop “encouraging war.” In April, Lula proposed creating a format similar to the G20 to discuss the situation in Ukraine and thus end the conflict.
Source: Ambito
