(Brasilia) Brazilian President Lula declined an invitation to visit Saint Petersburg on Friday, during a telephone interview with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, after his missed meeting with the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 Summit.
” I thanked [Poutine] of his invitation to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum” from June 14 to 17 “and I replied that I could not go to Russia at the moment”, tweeted Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“But I told him again that Brazil, like India, Indonesia and China, was ready to dialogue with the two parties to the conflict with a view to achieving peace,” he added.
Unlike several Western powers, Brazil has never imposed financial sanctions on Russia or agreed to supply munitions to Kyiv. Brasilia tries to position itself as a mediator.
Lula has sparked controversy by repeatedly asserting that the responsibilities for the conflict are shared, even though he recently condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the end of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, the Brazilian president said he was “upset” not to have discussed face-to-face with Mr. Zelensky.
However, he added that he did not see the point of meeting his Ukrainian counterpart immediately, believing that neither he nor Vladimir Putin wanted peace.