Global Courant 2023-04-15 06:21:17
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with China’s top leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, and the two leaders declared in a joint statement that negotiations were “the only viable way out of the crisis in Ukraine.”
In the statement, they avoided using the words “invasion” or “war” and offered few details about how to bring Russia or Ukraine to the table after more than a year of war. At the same time, Mr. Lula on Friday to respect China’s territorial integrity with respect to Taiwan, a position similar to that taken by France’s President Emmanuel Macron after his meeting with Mr. Xi in China.
The joint statement underlined the delicate lines China and Brazil have tried to draw on the war in Ukraine: each has refused to take an explicit side, called for peace talks and maintained business ties with Russia. Beijing, in particular, has joined Moscow in countering US influence abroad and what Mr Xi calls a US campaign to prevent China’s rise.
The careful positioning by Mr. Xi and Mr. Lula stands against the backdrop of Beijing’s deteriorating relations with Washington on a range of issues, and as China embarks on a diplomatic campaign to elevate its stature in Europe – and dwindle that of the United States. the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
US and some European officials have criticized China’s 12-point outline of issues to be considered in a peace deal because China has failed to suggest that Russian troops should withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a deal.
There have been no peace talks between Moscow and Kiev in the past 12 months, and both sides have ruled out a ceasefire based on current battlefield conditions. On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a law intended to create a system for electronic draft notices and to make it more difficult to avoid a draft.
Contrary to the lack of details about Ukraine, Brazil-China’s joint statement was direct on China’s territorial integrity, which was defined as Taiwan, a self-governed island democracy over which mainland China claims sovereignty.
“The Chinese side expressed great appreciation in this regard,” the relevant passage of the statement concluded.
While the United States and Europe have urged many countries to support Ukraine, regarding Taiwan, Mr Lula is not under the same pressure as Mr Macron to align France with its allies. After his statements about the island upset US and EU officials, Mr Macron backtracked, saying France supports the status quo.
Mr Lula’s official visit to Beijing began on Friday in Tiananmen Square, in the heart of Beijing, where Chinese state media showed him standing next to Mr Xi in front of the Great Hall of the People as Chinese soldiers marched past them with fixed bayonets .
Moving to the Main Hall on Friday afternoon, Mr Lula said he wanted the relationship between the two countries to be “cross-trade”. a release of Mr. Lula’s left party, the Labor Party.
“No one will forbid Brazil from improving its relationship with China,” he said.
Mr Lula traveled to Shanghai and then Beijing this week with strong incentives to accommodate China’s interests. In recent weeks, the Brazilian leader has suggested that China should be part of a global effort to broker peace talks, arguing that countries not directly involved in the conflict are better positioned to mediate the negotiations.
“Brazil as a country is increasingly aligning with the Chinese narrative,” said Moritz Rudolf, a China foreign policy specialist at Yale Law School.
China has not condemned the Russian invasion and Mr Xi remains closely associated with Mr Putin, who visited Moscow last month. Chinese officials say Beijing is not on Moscow’s side in the war and they will not send weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, but Chinese state media have echoed Kremlin claims that blamed NATO for initiating the conflict.
China, meanwhile, has continued high-level meetings with Russian officials following Mr. Xi to Moscow. The Ministry of National Defense announced on Friday that Defense Minister Li Shangfu will travel to Moscow on Sunday for a four-day trip.
Brazil has criticized Russia’s invasion in carefully worded statements, but its position is complicated by its dependence on Russia for about a quarter of its fertilizer imports, which are crucial to Brazil’s huge agricultural industry. Mr. Lula has also suggested that the President of Ukraine and NATO share the blame for the war, and he has resisted calls to send arms to Ukraine.
Recently leaked Pentagon documents suggest that Ukraine is increasingly desperate for weapons to hold back Russian forces, and in particular needs the kind of air defense Brazil can provide. European countries have moved on to sending more advanced weapons – the German government on Thursday approved a Polish request to export five MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. But as Western supplies have dwindled, Ukraine and its allies have put pressure on a number of countries that did not want to participate in sending aid.
Colombia and Argentina, led by leftists like Brazil, have refused to send weapons to Ukraine, while their leaders claim they will not take sides in the war.
But some of the leaked US intelligence documents indicate that Ecuador’s right-wing government has been considering sending Soviet-designed MI-17 helicopters to Ukraine in recent months, a move backed by the United States.
Ecuador is said to have been the first Latin American country to send weapons to Ukraine, according to the documents. It was not clear from the documents whether Ecuador continued. The possible transfer was first reported by Ecuadorian media in January.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry on Thursday denied any negotiations with Ukraine, saying in a statement that a “donation of military goods and supplies is not mentioned in Ecuadorian law, so an operation with these characteristics would be impossible.”
Mr. Lula introduced the idea of a peace group formed by such countries, and recently told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that he would discuss the idea with Mr. Xi, making Mr. Lula the latest in a line of leaders to share a vision for possible negotiations.
Brazil is Russia’s largest buyer of fertilizer, buying about $1.9 billion worth of chemicals from Russia in 2019, though Russia’s fertilizer industry is still dwarfed by oil and gas exports. While its energy trade with Europe has shrunk under Western sanctions, Russia has increased its trade on this front with countries such as China and India, making up for Russia’s energy trade deficits.
Mr Lula’s visit to China is part of an effort to rebuild relations that had suffered under Brazil’s previous president, Jair Bolsonaro. Giving Mr Xi his views on a possible path to peace for Ukraine, Brazil is back in the geopolitical conversation after Mr Bolsonaro’s controversial and isolationist government left office.
Reporting was contributed by Jack Nicas, André Spigariol, Genevieve Glatsky, Julie Turkewitz, and Christopher F. Schuetze.
