Brazil’s President Due in Communist China With a Peace Proposal for Ukraine

The Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, much to the chagrin of Washington and Kyiv, will land at Beijing this week bearing the gift of a “peace” proposal for Ukraine. Mr. da Silva is scheduled to meet with Chairman Xi on Friday, just two months after conferring with President Biden at the White House. At Beijing, Mr. da Silva is expected to discuss investment opportunities in his country. He will also attempt to advance a Ukraine peace plan that he had previously developed in consultations with Moscow.More than 20 agreements are expected to be signed during the bilateral meeting. Mr. da Silva might even begin conversations to join Beijing’s infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative, a professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Regiane Nitsch Bressan, tells the Sun. Yet, as Mr. da Silva is still formulating his foreign policy, no deal is likely to be finalized, she adds.Mr. da Silva “will open up new prospects” in Brasilia’s relations with Communist China, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said last month. Brazil, he added, will “bring our comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height and make new contributions to regional and global stability and prosperity.” The bilateral meeting was initially planned for March, but was postponed as Mr. da Silva caught pneumonia days before traveling to Beijing. Messrs. da Silva and Xi will “talk about the war in Ukraine,” Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, said last week, adding that the Brazilian government expects to create a group of countries interested in ending the war. When Mr. da Silva returns home, he will lead a group of countries that will mediate peace, Mr. Vieira said. On Thursday, Mr. da Silva secretly sent his top foreign adviser, Celso Amorim, to discuss his peace plan with President Putin. That day Mr. da Silva said that Ukraine “cannot want everything.” He suggested that to begin peace negotiations, Kyiv must renounce claims to Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.President Zelensky has long said that Crimea must return to Ukrainian control before peace talks can begin. “There is no legal, political or moral reason why Ukraine should give up even a centimeter of its land,” the foreign ministry spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, said on Twitter.“Any mediation efforts to restore peace must be based on respect for the sovereignty and full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity in accordance with the UN Charter.”The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is scheduled to visit Brasilia on April 17 for further consultations with Brazilian officials. On Friday, Mr. Lavrov said during a trip to Turkey that peace conversations should occur under the principles of a “new world order,” free from American domination, the Moscow Times reported. Earlier this year, Washington called on Latin American leaders to send unused, soon-to-rot arms to Ukraine. Yet, the plea was snubbed by all leaders, including Mr. da Silva, who declared neutrality in the war. Last month, Mr. da Silva spent 48 hours at Washington, traveling with a handful of close advisers. At Beijing, in contrast, he will be accompanied by more than 240 business leaders, governors, lawmakers, and the presidents of the senate and the house. He will spend four days in the country. That disparity is “proof of the weight” that Communist China carries in Latin America, a senior fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations, Fernanda Magnotta, told BBC Brazil. At the same time, America is struggling to propose development plans for Latin America, she added.Mr. da Silva is eager to rebuild ties with Beijing after four years of unstable relations under the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a Latin American analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, Lian Lin, tells the Sun. “China represents a vast market for Brazil’s raw materials and is also a source of much-needed infrastructure investment,” Mr. Lin says. When Mr. da Silva planned to become the first foreign leader to visit Beijing since Mr. Xi secured his third term as party chairman last month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee invited administration officials to discuss the “future of U.S.-Brazil relations.” “Is the Biden administration doing enough to discourage countries such as Brazil from seeking investments and trade with China?” Senator Ricketts, a Republican, said, highlighting the Monroe Doctrine, which warned foreign powers against interfering in the Americas. In the past two decades, “China has been allowed extensive grip across Latin America,” Mr. Ricketts said.The Biden administration is “focused” on demonstrating that America is the best partner for Latin American countries, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Brian Nichols, countered. “The U.S. is the largest source of direct investment in Brazil, generating high-quality job opportunities and growth for the benefit of our two peoples,” he added.Brazil and Communist China drew closer during Mr. da Silva’s first two presidential terms between 2003 and 2010. In 2009, Beijing became Brazil’s top trading partner, replacing America. Now, Brazil is the largest recipient of Communist Chinese investment in Latin America.

Brazil’s President Due in Communist China With a Peace Proposal for Ukraine

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