Brazil’s Lula says neither Putin nor Zelensky ready for peace
Leftist president slams UN over Ukraine war
Brasilia — Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country is working for peace in Ukraine, but neither its leader nor Russia’s are prepared to talk about peace.
“Neither Putin nor Zelensky are ready,” Lula da Silva told foreign correspondents in a news conference, adding that peace proposals he is seeking with other countries will be ready when Russia and Ukraine are willing to negotiate.
“Brazil’s role is to try to arrive at a peace proposal together with others for when both countries want it,” he said.
Lula da Silva has tried to form a group of neutral countries to get peace talks going. He has been criticised for saying that Ukraine and Russia are equally responsible for the war.
The leftist president, who was elected in 2022 for a third term, lashed out at the Western powers backing Ukraine and the permanent UN Security Council members for not stopping war.
“The UN Security Council has not worked. US invaded Iraq, France and England invaded Libya, now Russia. And everyone has veto power,” he stated.
He said the G7 group of advanced economies should no longer exist since the creation of the larger G20 group of leading and emerging economies.
“I hope once and for all that people see that discussing politics in the G7 is out of date. After the G20 there shouldn’t even be the G7,” he said.
Lula da Silva said the Brics group of emerging economies should allow new members “as long as they meet the requirements”.
His country had become the main opponent of expanding Brics, but the Brazilian president indicated that could change to make the five-country group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA stronger.
“I think it’s extremely important for Saudi Arabia to join the Brics (and) for the United Arab Emirates join, if they want to. Argentina too,” he said.
The New Development Bank created by the bloc should be more generous than the IMF.
“The bank exists to help save countries and not to help sink countries, which is what the IMF often does,” he said.
Reuters