Under fire for “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda,” Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday made clear his condemnation of Russia’s “violation of the territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
Lula met in Brasilia on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is visiting several Latin American nations during the week.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian president insisted that while his government “condemns the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine” it also defends “a negotiated political solution to the conflict.”
Lula was speaking during a lunch in honor of visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Lavrov called Tuesday for like-minded countries to “join forces” against the “blackmail” of Western sanctions, as the longtime diplomat continued his tour of Latin America.
Discussing Russia’s war on Ukraine with counterpart Yvan Gil in Caracas, Lavrov referred to allies Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua as countries “that choose their own path.”
All are, like Russia, the subject of damaging economic sanctions, he said.
“It is necessary to join forces to counter the attempts of blackmail and illegal unilateral pressure of the West,” Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Gil.
Lula’s main foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim on Tuesday described criticism of his boss as “absurd.”
“We have several points of convergence (with Russia), but at various times Brazil condemned… the invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
Brazil has not joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion, and has refused requests to supply ammunition to Ukraine.
The White House on Monday had criticized Lula’s remarks during a recent trip to China that Washington was “encouraging the war” in Ukraine and that Kyiv shared blame for the conflict.
“Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, while Ukraine also expressed anger at the comments.
Lavrov on Monday said Russia was “grateful to our Brazilian friends for their clear understanding of the genesis of the situation. We are grateful for their desire to contribute to finding ways of settling this situation.”
Lula has proposed creating a group of countries to mediate in the war.
Lavrov was in Venezuela on Tuesday, and would also visit Cuba and Nicaragua — all countries whose leftist governments are under US sanctions and at loggerheads with Washington.
On Russia’s war, Lavrov said: “We will resolve the situation” by upholding the principles of the United Nations’ founding charter on the “sovereign equity of states, on the principle of indivisibility of security.”
“Our task is to ensure that the UN charter is fully implemented, that the right to self-determination is not eliminated when it suits the West,” he said, according to an official translation.
Lavrov also met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who afterward tweeted that it was a “pleasant meeting that strengthened bilateral relations.”
Venezuela has long been a key Moscow ally, and Maduro has repeatedly expressed his support for Russia and President Vladimir Putin both before and after the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia, for its part, has supported Caracas in the face of sanctions imposed by the United States.
The opposition in Venezuela, backed by a large swathe of the international community, did not recognize Maduro’s re-election in 2018 in a vote widely dismissed as fraudulent.
At the bilateral level, Russia and Venezuela announced that they have signed agreements regarding oil and mining.
Lavrov will later travel to Cuba, which is facing a serious economic crisis.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited Russia at the end of November, where he announced he had signed several agreements concerning oil supplies to the island. However, fuel shortages persist.
Lavrov is expected to make a final stop in Managua, where he will meet with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
