Brazil’s Lula snubs Olaf Scholz with Ukraine war remarks


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazil’s freshly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva traded barbs late Monday on who’s responsible for Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, as the latter suggested that Kyiv could also be at fault.

Scholz arrived to the capital Brasília late Monday as part of a South American trip aimed at advancing a long-delayed EU-Mercosur trade and political cooperation deal, and to rally countries of the Global South behind the West’s support for Ukraine.

Yet on Ukraine, Scholz received a brutal rebuff.

Following the amicable start of a joint press conference, in which the Brazilian president said that he wants to finalize the EU trade deal “by the end of the current semester,” the mood turned sour after Lula raised the war in Ukraine and rejected Germany’s appeal to support Kyiv with weapons and ammunition.

“If one doesn’t want to, two can’t fight,” Lula told reporters, implying Ukraine as well had a role in Russia’s invasion.

“I think the reason for the war between Russia and Ukraine also needs to be clearer. Is it because of NATO? Is it because of territorial claims? Is it because of entry into Europe? The world has little information about that,” Lula added.

While he said that Russia committed “a classic mistake” by invading Ukraine’s territory, he also argued that neither side was showing sufficient willingness to resolve the war via negotiation: “No one wants to back down a millimeter,” he said.

The remarks by the left-wing president could be read as an affront particularly to Western leaders, who cheered Lula’s election last year as a chance to lead Brazil out of the international isolation that former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro had established.

Scholz — one of the first foreign leaders to visit the country following Lula’s inauguration at the beginning of this month — earlier in the press conference said, “We are all happy that Brazil is back on the world stage.”

After Lula’s remarks on Ukraine, the German chancellor stated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not just a European problem, but “a blatant violation of international law” and that it undermines “the basis for our cooperation in the world and also for peace.”

Lula, for his part, criticized mediation efforts to date: “Until now, I sincerely haven’t heard very much about how to reach peace in this war.” He instead proposed to establish a peace-oriented club of nonaligned countries like China, Brazil, India and Indonesia, which he said have thus far not been involved in discussions on the war.

He also rejected the possibility that Brazil could help Ukraine to fend off Russian missile or drone attacks by selling its units of the German-made Gepard air defense tanks along with corresponding ammunition: “Brazil has no interest in handing over munitions that can be used in the war between Ukraine and Russia,” Lula said. “We are a country committed to peace.”

Scholz retorted by arguing that Brazil’s past may have been much less peaceful if its South American neighbors were applying a similar imperialistic logic as Putin is currently doing in Ukraine.

“What kind of territorial conflicts would all be possible if everyone simply leafed through their history books, like the Russian president, and looked at where a border used to be? If you make that the yardstick, then we won’t have peace in the world,” he said.

Sonya Angelica Diehn and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed reporting.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous post Athletics affiliates defy council’s warning | The Nation Online
Next post Mehari Taddele Maru: “When you speak truth to power, clashes are inevitable”