The new Brazilian president, Luiz Inazio Lula da Silvavisit today for the first time the white houseSince his return to power in January, with the idea, already unwelcome in Washington at first, of creating what he has called a ‘peace club’ to settle negotiated ukrainian war, which also includes China. Instead of delving into the consensus that does unite Joe Biden —fighting against deforestation in the Amazon and strengthening institutions in the face of recent and similar insurrections in the US and Brazil— Lula has prepared a negotiation strategy that puts Ukraine and Russia on the same planealready rejected from the outset by the US presidency.
According to what the spokesman for the National Security Council said before the visit, John Kirby, President Biden does not believe that “this is the time to carry on with Russia as usual, because they are killing thousands and thousands of Ukrainians, innocent people who posed no threat to Russia.” “Russia crossed the border almost a year ago without provocation or excuse, and millions of people have been forced to take refuge inside and outside their country,” Kirby added in conversation with the press in Washington.
Lula has already turned Brazil into a important mediator on the international scene in his first presidency, between 2003 and 2010, and he did so by maintaining links with the US and the European Union and cultivating other ties with China and Russia, who along with Brazil, India and South Africa maintained the BRICS association of supposed emerging economies . During his tenure, Jair Bolsonaro He maintained that alliance and even hosted a summit in 2019 attended by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who preside over the Russian and Chinese regimes.
After his return to power, Lula has refused to provide military aid or ammunition to Ukraine, as the US and its allies have done. Brazil has the most effective and best armed army in all of Latin America. In a conversation with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, Lula said that his country will not be part of the war operations against Russia, but that he is willing to participate actively in the search for peace. In an appearance on January 30 in Brasilia reported by ‘Folha’, Lula said: “You have to create a club of people who want to build peace on the planet.”
Lula’s arrival in power consummates a continental left turn, and adds a reliable interlocutor to Biden. The American’s relations with Bolsonaro were tense at his best. After Lula was sworn in in January, a mob looted the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia, in the style of the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, and Biden was quick to publicly support Lula and offer him close collaboration, he said at the time. , “in defense of democracy”. In addition, US demands to stop the Amazon deforestation They are now well received in Brazil, when Bolsonaro criticized them as an interference in the sovereignty of his country.
