Brazil’s president discusses Ukraine war, BRICS with South African counterpart

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he had discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine and an upcoming BRICS summit with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa as they met in Paris.

Ramaphosa recently led a delegation of African leaders to Russia and Kyiv seeking to share the continent’s “perspective on finding peace in Ukraine,” but key elements of their peace plan ended up being rebuffed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Lula has also pitched himself as a peace broker to end the war, which began when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. The Brazilian leader irritated Western countries earlier this year when he suggested the West had been “encouraging” war by arming Ukraine.

“We talked about the next BRICS summit and about President Ramaphosa’s trip to Kyiv and Saint Petersburg, as well as the conversations he had with Zelenskiy and Putin,” Lula wrote on Twitter after their meeting.

Brazil, South Africa and Russia are all members of the BRICS group of emerging nations, which will hold a summit in the African nation in August. The group also includes India and China.

Lula and Ramaphosa are both in Paris for the New Global Financing Pact Summit.

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