Lavrov meets his Brazilian counterpart in South Africa
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira in South Africa on Friday, with whom he discussed the South American country’s efforts to promote peace in Ukraine, his ministry said in a statement.
During the meeting, held on the sidelines of the ministerial conference of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Cape Town, “particular attention was paid to Brazil’s efforts to find a way to resolve the situation in Ukraine,” Russian diplomats indicated.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, strongly defended the need to stop hostilities between Russia and Ukraine and proposed the creation of a group of countries to act as a mediator between the two sides. In turn, he has been accused by several Western countries of wanting to put “the aggressor and the victim” on the same level. Lula has spoken to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, but has yet to meet either in person.
At the recent G-7 summit in Japan, Zelenski missed the meeting he had planned to hold with Lula. In April and May, the Brazilian president sent his adviser and former foreign minister Celso Amorim to Moscow and Kiev to discuss possible negotiations and, after holding talks with the Russian and Ukrainian authorities, the head of Brazilian diplomacy confirmed that at the moment there are no conditions for peace.
Lavrov and Vieira also discussed, in a “traditionally friendly and constructive environment”, topical issues related to the development of relations between Russia and Brazil, especially with regard to their political, economic and trade components. (EFE)