Brazil’s President Lula spoke to Vladimir Putin, turned down invitation to visit Russia

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday (May 26) that during a telephone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, he turned down an invitation to travel to Saint Petersburg.

In a tweet, Lula said that he had to decline the invite as he "can't visit Russia at the moment", but he had thanked Putin for an invitation to attend an economic forum.

Lula cited New Delhi's stance on the Ukraine war, which is a diplomatic solution to end it, saying, "I reiterated Brazil's willingness, along with India, Indonesia and China, to talk to both sides of the conflict in pursuit of peace."

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He had also discussed the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week.

Notably, Lula has positioned himself as a peace broker to stop the conflict. His proposal, based on Brazil's legacy of non-intervention and neutrality, calls for a group of non-combatant states to hold discussions with both Russia and Ukraine.

He has turned down the request just days after a confrontation between him and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 summit in Japan, where a meeting between the two was cancelled.

And after that Lula had said that they "waited and received the information that he [Zelensky] was late".

Lula said that the Ukrainian president "did not show up ... clearly, he had appointments and he couldn't come. He had said that he wasn't disappointed but was upset because he would like to meet him to "discuss the matter". He added that "Zelensky is a grown-up. He knows what he’s doing".

Russia-Ukraine war

The Russia-Ukraine war started after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to the neighbouring nation in February 2022. While many Western countries have sent weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself and have hit Moscow with financial sanctions, Lula instead has tried to position himself as a mediator, creating a group of nations seeking to produce a negotiated peace deal.

Commenting on support for Ukraine, a senior Senator said on a visit to Kyiv on Friday (May 26) that if the United States fails to back the war-torn nation enough, that would send a signal to China that it could take Taiwan.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said after meeting Zelensky that US President Joe Biden should send more weapons to Ukraine in addition to the more than $35 billion of weaponry and military hardware already provided.

A hard line toward China is one of the few policies with bipartisan support in the deeply divided US Congress.

(With inputs from agencies)

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