By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country is working for peace in Ukraine but neither its leader nor Russia’s are prepared to talk peace.
“Neither Putin nor Zelenskiy are ready,” Lula told foreign correspondents in a news conference, adding that peace proposals he is seeking with other countries will be ready when Russia and Ukraine are willing to negotiate.
“Brazil’s role is to try to arrive at a peace proposal together with others for when both countries want it,” he said.
Lula has tried to form a group of neutral countries to get peace talks going. He has been criticized for saying that Ukraine and Russia are equally responsible for the war.
The leftist president, who was elected last year for a third term, lashed out at the Western powers backing Ukraine and the permanent U.N. Security Council members for not stopping war.
“The U.N. Security Council has not worked. United States invaded Iraq, France and England invaded Libya, now Russia. And everyone has veto power,” he stated.
Lula said the G7 group of advanced economies should no longer exist since the creation of the larger G20 group of leading and emerging economies.
“I hope once and for all that people see that discussing politics in the G7 is out of date. After the G20 there shouldn’t even be the G7,” he said.
Lula said the BRICS group of emerging economies should allow new members “as long as they meet the requirements.”
His country has become the main opponent of expanding BRICS, but the Brazilian president indicated that could change to make the five-country group stronger.
“I think it’s extremely important for Saudi Arabia to join the BRICS (and) for the United Arab Emirates join, if they want to. Argentina too,” he said.
Lula said the New Development Bank created by the BRICS should be more generous than the International Monetary Fund.
“The bank exists to help save countries and not to help sink countries, which is what the IMF often does,” he said.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Mark Porter and David Gregorio)
