After the isolation of the Bolsonaro years, Brazilian President Lula da Silva began a visit to Portugal on Saturday to reconnect with the former colonial power, but the two Portuguese-speaking countries confirmed their differences over the war in Ukraine.
Despite the controversy caused by his recent criticism of Westerners, the 77-year-old Brazilian leader reaffirmed in Lisbon his refusal to “participate” in the conflict and his willingness to contribute to a “negotiated solution” between Kiev and Moscow.
“At the same time as my government condemns the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, we defend a negotiated political solution for the conflict”, he declared to the press after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“We urgently need a group of countries that sit down at the table both with Ukraine and with Russia,” he said.
“President Lula believes that the path to a just and lasting peace presupposes a priority for this path of negotiation. The Portuguese position is different: it intends that a possible path to peace presupposes the right for Ukraine to to be able to react to the invasion”, reacted Mr. Rebelo de Sousa.
Lula, who has already governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, wants to put his country back at the center of global geopolitics and has been trying to play the tightrope walker since the start of his term.
He traveled to Washington in February for a meeting at the White House with his American counterpart Joe Biden and recently visited China, Brazil’s largest trading partner.
But the former metalworker sparked a heated controversy when he told Beijing that the United States should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and that the European Union should “start talking about peace”.
Remarks harshly criticized by Washington who accused him of “echoing Russian and Chinese propaganda”.
The Brazilian leader also reaffirmed that the responsibilities for the war triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 were shared between the two countries.
Received by Lula in Brasilia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “thanked” Brazil for its “contribution” in the search for a solution to the conflict and for “its excellent understanding of the genesis of this situation”.
Invited to Kiev so that he “understands the real causes and the essence” of the war, the Brazilian head of state announced from Lisbon that he will send his main foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, there for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
For his first trip to Europe since his return to power in January, the icon of the Latin American left has chosen to make a state visit to Portugal, a former colonizer from which Brazil separated in 1822.
“It’s a special visit that will mark the relaunch of our bilateral dialogue,” said Lula before meeting Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa for a Luso-Brazilian summit.
“After seven years of interruption, we are resuming the annual summits”, assured the head of the Portuguese government after the signing of a dozen bilateral agreements, in particular in the fields of energy, science, education and tourism.
On Monday, after a meeting with entrepreneurs near Porto (north), Lula will take part in the presentation of the highest distinction in Portuguese-speaking literature, the Camoens Prize, to the famous Brazilian singer and author Chico Buarque.
The latter, known for his commitment to the left and against the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), had been announced as the winner in 2019, but the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had refused to sign the necessary documents for the award is officially presented to him.
Before heading to Spain for a two-day visit, Lula will deliver a speech in the Portuguese Parliament on Tuesday during a session ahead of commemorations of the 49th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, which ended 48 years of dictatorship in Portugal. .
04/22/2023 20:48:41 – Lisbonne (Portugal) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
