Lula’s visit to China is the focus of everyone’s attention. The Brazilian and Chinese presidents will discuss the Ukraine issue, but Brasilia’s positions are divided in the western camp.
It’s a highly-anticipated visit as Brazilian President Lula begins a four-day trip to China on Tuesday, April 11. The head of state hopes to put Brazil back at the center of world diplomacy and present itself as a defender of peace, particularly on the Ukraine issue.
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But these latest positions divide and irritate part of the western camp. Most recent appearance: his proposal to cede Crimea to Russia to end the war. Indeed, on Thursday, April 6, 2023, Lula Kyiv proposed to cede the Ukrainian peninsula annexed from Moscow in 2014, believing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “couldn’t want everything.”
Ukraine’s response was immediate: “There is no legal, political or moral reason to give up even an inch of Ukrainian territory,” Ukrainian diplomacy spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook, pledged to “appreciate the efforts of the Brazilian president.” find a way to stop Russian aggression”. At the end of January, the Brazilian head of state formulated a still vaguely outlined proposal for mediating a group of states in the Ukraine conflict.
Bringing Brazil back onto the international stage
For Carlos Milani, Professor of International Relations at Rio de Janeiro State University, the Brazilian President is venturing on slippery ground: “Perhaps Brazil doesn’t need to step on the complex Ukrainian chessboard to shine on the world stage, they exist many other issues where Brazil has enormous resources in hand, such as the climate issue. So what dare to Ukraine?
Far from having the expected success, these initiatives are nonetheless functioning as trial balloons in a world in turmoil: “Brazil is testing the ground to see how the major powers react on the very sensitive issue of Ukraine. I think it is also better to understand how Brazil can position itself in the new geopolitical agreement, because things are not entirely clear yet,” he deciphers.
Brazilian diplomacy is only too aware that there is no peace for the time being, but after Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate, synonymous with international isolation, Lula’s Brazil is trying by all means to sit down at the table of the greats.