Washington
Brazil did not sign the closing statement of the second edition of the Democracy Summit, an event sponsored by the Joe Biden administration and coorganized with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia.
The text contains a number of criticisms of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which lasted more than 13 months. “We deplore the dire humanitarian and human rights consequences of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, including continued attacks on critical infrastructure across Ukraine with devastating consequences for civilians, and we express grave concern at the high number of civilian casualties , including women and children, the number of internally displaced persons and refugees in need of humanitarian assistance, and child violence and abuse,” the document said.
The statement also raises concerns about the war’s impact on areas such as food and energy security, nuclear safety and the environment. “We demand that Russia immediately, fully and unconditionally withdraw all its armed forces from the territory of Ukraine and call for an end to hostilities,” the text continues, calling for accountability for crimes that violate international law.
A total of 76 countries signed the declaration, 16 of which indicated disagreements. For example, three signatory states do not fully agree with the paragraph that mentions Russia: India (member of the BRICS alongside Moscow, Brazil, China and South Africa), Armenia and Mexico.
The Democracy Summit is taking place this week and has served as a sort of online forum with leaders delivering speeches via video conference. The US government invited 120 countries to attend the event, but only 85 leaders sent speeches, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was not among them. The former president was due to be in China for the scheduled date a country that was not invited to the summit but his trip was canceled after he was diagnosed with pneumonia.
When asked about the lack of signatures, a senior US government official said that “any joint statement may be subject to intensive negotiations” and that the signatures are provisional as more countries could join the document.
The document does not focus on the Ukraine war, but is a kind of commitment by the signatories to promote democracy and strengthen institutions. However, the text was signed by leaders who have been criticized for their actions seen as undemocratic, such as India’s Narendra Modi, Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu and Poland’s Andrzej Duda.
Under Lula, Brazilian diplomacy has maintained a stance similar to that seen with Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the Ukraine war and has avoided joining the harshest demonstrations by the United States and Western allies, despite condemning the war in international forums.
Lula has already suggested forming a “peace club” of nonaligned countries to negotiate an end to the war and opposes arms and ammunition supplies to the Ukrainians and imposition of sanctions on the Russians. The United States has provided billions of dollars in aid to Kiev and imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s government.
This week, Brazil, along with Russia and China, voted in the UN Security Council to open an investigation into the attack on Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipeline, which connects Russia with Germany, but the position was rejected by the other members of the panel.
In February, however, the Brazilian government gave in to pressure from the White House and, following Lula’s visit to Washington, accepted a joint statement with the Biden administration nominally condemning Moscow for the violation of territory in Ukraine, for disregarding international law, for the dead and attacks on the main infrastructure of the country.
This year’s Democracy Summit was empty compared to the first meeting, and key absences were noted. Besides Brazil, leaders from countries such as Chile, Argentina, Spain and Portugal did not attend.
Biden announced $690 million (Reais 3.5 billion) in funding for a fund to strengthen democracies around the world. The value exceeds the approximately US$400 million (about R$2 billion) announced for a similar purpose in 2021 during the first edition of the event. According to the American leader, the amount will be used to fight corruption, support free and fair elections, and develop advanced technologies to support democratic governments. However, there are doubts about the effectiveness of these kinds of initiatives and reservations about the leading role that the US is trying to play in this regard, which obviously corresponds to the American claim.