Ukraine: missed appointment between Zelensky and Lula in Hiroshima
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (c) with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023. via REUTERS - POOL
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1 min
The Zelensky-Lula meeting did not take place in Hiroshima. Brazilian President Lula da Silva says he waited for his Ukrainian counterpart on the sidelines of the G7, but he did not come. Zelensky quipped that Lula must have been "frustrated" that he could not meet him.
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With our correspondent in São Paulo, Martin Bernard
Schedule incompatibility or mood incompatibility? The missed meeting between Lula and Volodymyr Zelensky has caused a lot of ink to flow. The Ukrainian president used his trip to Japan to meet with many leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Brazil's position is different: Lula acknowledges that Moscow is the aggressor, but he wants to stop the war through negotiation, not an escalation of the conflict – while the G7 has just come out in favor of new arms sales to Ukraine.
The missed Hiroshima appointment comes a week after Lula's diplomatic adviser visited Kiev. Celso Amorim then explained the Brazilian position... After the visit of Russian Foreign Minister to Brasilia, Sergey Lavrov, last month.
After the G7, Lula's plan to form a "peace club" for Ukraine still seems deadlocked.
► READ ALSO: Zelensky at the G7 in Hiroshima to plead the Ukrainian cause, especially with China and India
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Read on on the same topics:
- Brazil
- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
- Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky