Amherd discusses Ukraine peace talks with Brazil’s Lula da Silva
Published: Thursday, Jun 13th 2024, 19:10
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President Viola Amherd met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Geneva. They also discussed their differing views on what the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine could be.
The talks took place on Thursday on the fringes of the Global Coalition for Social Justice forum, which was attended by the Brazilian president, as the Federal Council announced in the evening. The exchange enabled Switzerland to obtain Brazil's point of view in the run-up to the Ukraine peace conference this coming weekend on the Bürgenstock in Nidwalden.
Both sides acknowledged the efforts of the international community to find peaceful solutions. The meeting on the Bürgenstock, which is being attended by over 90 states and organizations, including heads of state and government from Germany, France, Italy and Poland, but not Brazil, is intended to create a common foundation for future peace negotiations.
Switzerland and Brazil reportedly agreed in Geneva to continue the dialog with a view to a future peace process. In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order for a military invasion of Ukraine; since then, the Russian army has occupied around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
Consideration for Putin
Brazil is part of the group of so-called Brics states led by Russia and China (abbreviation for the founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which, true to Russian President Putin's goal, are striving for a multipolar world and fighting against alleged Western dominance.
In contrast to Brics member India, which is taking part in the conference on the Bürgenstock, Brazil squirms when it comes to positions that differ from Russia, such as the Ukraine peace conference, which Russia is not attending. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already signaled Moscow's disinterest in such a conference to Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis at the beginning of the year.
As the host of the Ukraine peace conference, Switzerland tried until the very end to get China to participate, as well as countries from the so-called global South - with little success. This part of the world has been economically courted by China for years and made dependent with loans; Russia, on the other hand, mainly sends mercenaries to Africa in exchange for raw materials.
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