Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday was at odds with Europe over Ukraine during his first European tour since resuming office in January.
He is seeking to revive his country’s diplomatic ties after four years of relative isolation under right-wing former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, but tensions have been on display with the West over Ukraine.
On Saturday, Lula again called for a “negotiated” settlement between Kyiv and Moscow, more than a year after the Russian invasion.
Photo: AFP
The Brazilian leader has angered Ukraine by saying Kyiv shares blame for the war, and has not joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Moscow or supplying ammunition to Kyiv.
“While my government condemns the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, we support a negotiated political solution to the conflict,” Lula told reporters after meeting Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in Lisbon.
“We urgently need a group of countries to sit round a table with both Ukraine and Russia,” Lula said. “Brazil does not want to take part in this war. Brazil wants to create peace.”
“President Lula believes the road to a just and lasting peace implies making negotiation a priority,” Rebelo de Sousa said.
“Portugal has a different position. We think that for a road to peace to become a possibility, Ukraine must first have the right to respond to the invasion,” he said.
Portugal is a founding member of NATO and was among the first European countries to supply tanks to Kyiv.
Lula, a 77-year-old former metalworker who served two previous terms as president from 2003 to 2010, has resisted taking sides over the conflict, neither with Europe and the US, nor with China and Russia.
He raised hackles earlier this month by saying Washington should stop “encouraging” the war by supplying weapons to Kyiv.
He said the US and the EU “need to start talking about peace.”
“If you don’t talk about peace, you contribute to war,” Lula said.
After a flurry of criticism from Europe, Kyiv and the White House, which accused him of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda,” Lula on Tuesday said that Brazil “condemned” the Russian invasion.
On Friday, he announced that he was sending top Brazilian foreign policy adviser Cesar Amorim to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, after representatives of the Ukrainian community in Portugal met the Brazilian delegation in Lisbon.
“Brazil is determined to contribute to fostering dialogue and peace, and an end to this conflict,” the Brazilian government said.
Rebelo de Sousa’s comments were the second in days that took aim at Lula, who was recently named on Time magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people.
“Brazil’s position at the United Nations has always been the same — on the side of Portugal, the United States and NATO,” Rebelo de Sousa said.
“If Brazil changes its stance, that’s none of Portugal’s business. We will stick to our views and we will disagree,” he said.
Despite their failure to see eye to eye on Ukraine, Lula and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa hailed a first summit between the countries in seven years.
Lula reveled in a “special visit marking the relaunch of our bilateral dialogue,” after signing a dozen accords in fields including energy cooperation, education and tourism.
On Tuesday, he is due to address the Portuguese parliament.
The Brazilian leader’s trip to Portugal would be followed by a two-day visit to Spain to meet King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
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