FERNANDA PERRIN
NEW YORK, USA (FOLHAPRESS)
After the rumored disagreement between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima last May, the UN General Assembly taking place this week in New York opened more a window of opportunity for a bilateral.
The Brazilian government states that there is a formal request for a meeting between the presidents, two of the most anticipated figures in this edition of the United Nations leaders’ meeting, and that it has offered two date options, but that there is still no official confirmation from Kiev.
The government’s foreign policy team says there are more than 50 requests for bilateral meetings with other presidents and prime ministers and to participate in events for Lula on the margins of the UN.
On the occasion of the G7 summit, at which both Lula and Zelenski were guests, there was wide expectation of a meeting, despite statements by the PT member criticized by Ukrainians for allegedly diminishing Moscow’s share of guilt in the Ukrainian War.
When the meeting did not take place, the Brazilian government stated that Zelenski “simply did not show up” and that three times had been suggested. Planalto sources tried, however, to minimize the importance of Lula not having met with Zelenski at the time.
The Ukrainian, on the occasion, had conversations with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi – another leader of a country in the Global South that, like Brazil, has been trying to maintain neutrality in the war.
Later, in an interview in Kiev with Folha and other Latin American press outlets, the Ukrainian president gave a different version of the episode. According to Zelenski, the disagreement in Japan was not Ukraine’s fault.
During the conversation, he also criticized the PT member for the lack of support for the creation of a special international court to judge crimes of aggression in war and said that the Brazilian leader wants to be “original” in his proposals.
In the meantime, between the disagreement at the G7 and the UN General Assembly, the Brazilian chancellor, Mauro Vieira, spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitro Kuleba, by phone last week.
Lula also returned to making criticized statements in areas involving the war. The Brazilian said he was unaware of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the body that issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the war.
He also stated during a conversation with an Indian broadcaster that, if Putin came to Brazil for the G20 summit in 2024, he would not be arrested, which goes against the commitments made by Brasília with the Hague Court, as the ICC is known, by signing the Rome Statute, its founding document.
The post Lula Government offers two times to meet with Zelenski in New York appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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