Brasilia. The Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, travels on Tuesday to Russia and China, where he will meet respectively with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, in an international scenario transformed by the return of Donald Trump and his commercial war.
Lula will witness the military parade on Friday in the Red Square in Moscow in commemoration of the 80 years of the surrender of Nazi Germany against the Soviets.
The Kremlin announced that 29 foreign leaders, including XI and Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, will be present.
The ceremony is anticipated loaded: Putin is expected to use his speech to justify the offensive launched by Moscow in Ukraine in February 2022, which has caused tens of thousands of dead.
For the occasion, Putin ordered this year a high unilateral fire from May 8 to 10.
Brazilian diplomats estimate that the bilateral meeting between Lula and Putin will be an “opportunity for a conversation” about Ukraine, after the unsuccessful attempts of the Brazilian leader to boost an alternative peace plan along with China.
“Brazil seeks peace, seeks to have a dialogue with Russia in several matters,” the Secretary for Asia of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Eduardo Paes, also told journalists, who also stressed that there is “an interlocution with Ukraine.”
The diplomat stressed that Brazil defends “territorial integrity”, a key issue in the eventual resolution of the conflict since Russian troops occupy wide strips of Ukrainian territory.
In acts in Moscow, leaders from other countries such as Burkina Faso and Bosnia will join Russia’s traditional allies in Central Asia, among others.
“Lula is one of the few guest Democrats,” said the AFP Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the Center for Political-Strategic Studies of the Navy.
The Brazilian leader will then travel to Beijing, from May 11 to 13, mainly for a state visit, after the meeting with XI in Brasilia in November.
The two powers, members of the BRICs, have recently reinforced their tuning in opposition to Trump’s commercial protectionism.
Also its economic and commercial ties: with 160,000 million dollars in bilateral exchange in 2023, China is the largest commercial partner in Brazil.
In Beijing, Lula will also participate in the IV Forum between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Latin Americans promote a candidacy in the region to hold the position of UN Secretary General, when the vacancy opens in 2027.
