Lula runs away from meeting with Zelensky citing scheduling problems

The G7 summit, in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, ended without a meeting between presidents Lula, from Brazil, and Volodymyr Zelensky, from Ukraine. Even before the start of the meeting, to which Lula and other leaders of emerging nations had been invited, Zelensky had expressed his intention to talk to Lula, after a series of pro-Russian statements by the Brazilian president. However, scheduling problems prevented the meeting, according to the advisory of the Presidency of the Republic.

According to the newspapers The globe It is The State of São Paulo, the Ukrainian government requested the meeting as soon as Zelensky arrived in Hiroshima, on Saturday, and the special advisor to the Presidency for international affairs, Celso Amorim, even said that there was “a tendency” for the meeting to take place. The Brazilians responded to the Ukrainian request by offering some times that were still available in Lula’s schedule, but Zelensky, who spent the weekend in numerous meetings with other leaders, already had appointments scheduled for the times offered by Brazil. Thus, Lula – who on Sunday met, for example, with the president of the Comoros Islands and the prime minister of Vietnam – and Zelensky were left without a bilateral meeting.

Furthermore, Lula’s team had suggested that the meeting take place at the hotel where the Brazilian was staying, while Zelensky remained in another area of ​​the city, with reinforced security. However, Lula was in that region to participate in a panel at the G7 meeting, and even then he did not try to talk to the Ukrainian. According to Estadãoon one of the occasions when the leaders participating in the summit were together, Zelensky was greeted by several of them, while Lula remained seated.

In a press conference after the end of the G7 summit, Zelensky confirmed the scheduling conflicts, but mocked the fact that he had not met with Lula. “I found all the leaders. Almost all. Everyone has their own agendas. I think that’s why we couldn’t meet the president of Brazil”, said the Ukrainian, who already had a meeting with the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, considered even closer to Vladimir Putin than Lula. When asked if he was disappointed not to meet the Brazilian, Zelensky replied “I think he [Lula] who was disappointed,” and laughed.

In G7 session, Lula criticizes Russia and western powers

According to information from Estadão, during one of the G7 summit sessions Lula, speaking off the cuff, and in front of Zelensky, condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and said that the parties involved in the war, including Putin, should explain themselves to the United Nations. However, Lula returned to criticize the Western powers in a more veiled way, saying that “permanent members of the UN Security Council continue the long tradition of waging wars not authorized by the body” – the United States, France and the United Kingdom have supported the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion.

The insinuation follows on from previous statements by Lula that also blame Western nations, and not just the Russian invader, for the conflict in Ukraine. In an interview with a Chinese television channel, in April, the Brazilian had criticized Western powers for sending weapons to Ukraine. Days later, in the United Arab Emirates, the president blamed even the Ukrainians by saying that “the decision to go to war was taken by two countries” [Rússia e Ucrânia] and that “Zelensky does not take the initiative to stop”. With that, Lula repeated what she had already said before the 2022 election, when, in an interview with the US magazine Teamstated that “this guy [Zelensky] he is as responsible as Putin” for the war, that the Ukrainian had “a bit of a strange behavior, because it seems that he is part of a show” and “he thinks he is the king of cocada”. At least at the G7, Lula refrained from directly criticizing Ukraine.

Japan says Brazil also supports sovereignty

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday that all emerging powers attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima, including Brazil and India, “support the principle of sovereignty” and say the conflict in Ukraine “must end peaceful way”. “We had important conversations with these countries, we spoke frankly and gave an important message to the world”, said Kishida at a press conference held in the city’s Peace Park, at the end of the summit of the group’s leaders.

According to the Japanese premier, the countries reached an agreement on four points, which include respect for sovereignty under the UN Charter, peaceful resolution of conflicts, not allowing change of status quo world by force and to protect the free and open international order based on law. “With the presence of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and in the face of the nuclear threat from Russia, we managed to send yet another message that this can never be allowed”, added the Japanese, and said that the session ended lasting longer than expected. for the interests of the different representatives.

A source who had access to the conversations said that other guests also agreed with the principle of territorial integrity defended by Zelensky, although no further details were released. At the end of last year, the Ukrainian released a ten-point program for a peace negotiation, which includes respect for Ukraine’s original borders, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the return of forcibly deported Ukrainians and the establishment of a court especially for prosecuting war crimes.