Brazilian president Lula flies away on Tuesday for Russia before going to China, when the international scene is upset by the return of Donald Trump to the United States and his trade war.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, then Chinese President Xi Jinping during a state visit to Beijing.
Friday, in the Russian capital, the Brazilian president must attend the great military parade in the Red square, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Twenty-eight other leaders are also expected for this ceremony in Moscow, including Xi Jinping and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
‘Lula is one of the few guest democrats leaders,’ said Mauricio Santoro, a specialist in the Center for Politic-Strategic Studies in the Brazilian Navy, to AFP.
On the occasion of the commemorations, a cease-fire announced by Mr. Putin must be in force from May 8 to 10, in the conflict between Russia to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saw it as a ‘handling attempt’, while kyiv is under pressure from Washington for negotiations with Russia.
According to a senior Brazilian diplomatic official, the bilateral meeting between Lula and Mr. Putin will be ‘an opportunity for discussion’ on this conflict, after unsuccessful attempts in Brazil to play the mediators alongside China.
‘Brazil is a country seeking peace, dialogue with Russia, on several subjects,’ told journalists in Brasilia this official, Eduardo Paes Saboia, secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of relations with Asia. He also pointed out that the South American country was ‘in dialogue with Ukraine’, whose territorial integrity it defends.
Lula will then go to Beijing from May 11 to 13, six months after a visit to Xi Jinping in Brasilia, after the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
China and Brazil, heavy goods vehicles of the BRICS, the group of emerging countries, both strongly criticized the increase in customs duties decided recently by US President Donald Trump, and which is particularly targeting Beijing.
The Asian giant is Brazil’s first trading partner and exchanges between the two countries reached more than $ 160 billion in 2023.
/ATS
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