The Brazilian president is touring the Iberian Peninsula in a bid to boost ties with the European Union, but his persistent claims that Russia and Ukraine are responsible for the ongoing war highlight the bloc’s difficulty in winning over the global south.
During his stay in Portugal, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Ukraine “doesn’t want to stop” the war and insisted that peace talks must begin, even though Moscow continues its missile attacks on civilian targets and parts of Ukraine are still occupied by Russian forces.
Lula’s rhetoric on the war, which was earlier condemned by the United States as “parroting the Russian and Chinese propaganda,” has highlighted the challenge facing the European Union and its allies in their struggle to build a global coalition that seeks to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, and revealed Its lack of political influence over parts of the non-Western world.
While Lula has made it clear that he condemns the invasion of a sovereign country, he did not disavow comments last week in the UAE that Russia and Ukraine had shared responsibility and that the United States and the European Union were “contributing” to the conflict.
We do not support war. Lula said in Lisbon on Saturday alongside Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the president of Portugal. In the event of the ongoing conflict, Lula added: “Russia does not want it to stop, and Ukraine does not want it to stop. And if you do not talk about peace, you are contributing to the war.”
He is due to travel to Spain on Tuesday, the country that will hold the EU’s rotating presidency in July. This is Lula’s first European trip since taking office in January and follows visits to China and the United States. A senior diplomat said Lula’s trip to the Iberian Peninsula was meant to show that the European Union is a “major priority” for Latin America’s largest country.
The global response to the war in Ukraine has provided a startling wake-up call for EU diplomats who have failed to persuade major countries in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia to oppose Moscow’s invasion.
EU officials have admitted they have struggled to challenge Russian and Chinese rhetoric across the developing world, which portrays the invasion of Ukraine as an act of self-defense by Russia and claims that unjustified Western sanctions have exacerbated global inflation, food supply concerns and geopolitical instability. .
While Brazil voted at the United Nations to condemn the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Russia’s false annexation of parts of its territory, it did not join Western sanctions against Moscow and did not agree to supply weapons to Ukraine.
“I understand the position of Europe and I understand the position of Romania, which has a 600 km border with Ukraine, but I want people to understand the position of Brazil,” Lula told reporters in Lisbon. “Brazil does not want to participate in the war, Brazil wants to find a group of people who are willing to spend time talking to all the people who are willing to make peace.”
EU officials have privately sought to downplay Lula’s statements that both Russia and Ukraine bear responsibility for the conflict, noting that experienced politicians like the 77-year-old will always tailor their rhetoric to their audiences to gain geopolitical advantages.
But they have heightened a sense of estrangement ahead of the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean summit in Brussels next July, as the 27-nation bloc seeks to reverse years of lackluster engagement with the region.
The EU has not held a summit with the region in eight years, something a senior official in Brussels said was a mistake.
“There are many reasons that could explain this anomaly, but one of them is clearly the fact that it was seen as not significant enough,” the official admitted.
“We were unable to communicate effectively how strong our commitment to the region was,” they added. “Now this will change from an institutional point of view.”
Relations between the European Union and Brazil are strained after a row over environmental rules last month stalled a trade agreement with four of South America’s largest economies. “Too many” Latin American and Caribbean countries “feel that Europe has left them a little bit behind in recent years,” said a second EU official. “We need to fix that.”
Francisco Seixas da Costa, Portugal’s former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Brazil, said Lula’s remarks on Ukraine were in line with his country’s firm desire “to be seen as an actor on the international stage, as an actor in the global south”. He said that Brazil traditionally maintains a policy of neutrality, which in this case became problematic.
“He did not realize that it was impossible to maintain the idea of neutrality. Being neutral means not siding with the victim,” Seixas da Costa said. “This is wrong.”
During a press conference in Lisbon that was marked by a friendly tone and references to Brazil and Portugal, the former colonial power, as “brother countries,” de Souza stressed that Brazil had always voted for Ukraine at the United Nations since the war began, but admitted that “the Portuguese position differs from Brazil’s position.
“The war should not have started. Russia should not have invaded. But the truth is, it happened,” Lula added. “Instead of choosing a side now, I want to choose a third path, which is peacebuilding.”