MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula's stance could jeopardize Mercosur-EU deal

Commentators on Brazil's opposition media Jovem Pan this week even suggested Lula seeking the Nobel Peace Prize would be a good explanation

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's stance on the war in Ukraine might jeopardize the Mercosur-European Union deal, according to a confidential report drafted ahead of a European foreign ministers' summit and accessed by Politico.

The EU “is concerned about Brazil's position on Russia's war against Ukraine and Brazil's lack of engagement on climate [and] environmental issues,” the document allegedly reads. It also points out that “making progress on the EU-Mercosur agreement will be of vital importance,” especially for Europe to strengthen its relations with Latin American countries in the face of Russia and China's rapprochement. “But the EU will also have to increase investments in energy, digital and sustainable value chains” in the face of the Asian giant's plans in the Latin American region, especially with Brazil, its largest trading partner.

During his three-day tour of Beijing and Abu Dhabi, Lula spoke about creating a “peace club” of impartial countries to mediate in the Ukraine crisis. He underlined that “the decision of the war was made by two countries”, indicating that Ukraine and Russia bear equal responsibility for the conflict, and accused the United States and Europe of prolonging the conflict with their arms shipments. He also announced that he would abandon the dollar to trade in yuan with China.

“The approach that puts the victim and the aggressor on the same scale and accuses of encouraging war those countries that help Ukraine defend itself from deadly aggression does not correspond to the real state of affairs,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said when inviting Lula to visit his country.

Washington described as erroneous the statements of Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira when receiving his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Brasilia this week: “We were shocked at the tone of the Foreign Ministry press conference, which did not use a tone of neutrality and suggested that the US and Europe are not interested in peace or that they share responsibility for the war, that is completely wrong,” said White House Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

Lula's statements were “not a sign of Brazil's strength as a regional power, but of its enormous economic dependence on China to the point of determining its foreign policy and, what is more serious, of the use of the world's reserve currency for a country with such a high foreign debt as Brazil,” argued a political analyst quoted by Politico.

“At a time when protectionism is resurgent and gaining strength in the world, we can promote alternatives that ensure shared prosperity,” Lula said Wednesday during a toast with Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis, who is in Brazil on an official visit.

“Brazil has an interest in the conclusion of the Mercosur-European Union agreement. It must be balanced, capable of supporting the reindustrialization and development project of the country [Brazil]”, said Lula.

“Everything leads us to believe that there is a strong link between the search for a seat in the UN Security Council and Brazil's insistence on being one of the articulators of a possible peace group together with India”, considered Roberto Goulart Menezes, a press agent of the G7.

Commentators on Brazil's opposition media Jovem Pan this week even suggested Lula seeking the Nobel Peace Prize would be a good explanation for his lukewarm approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.