Policy|Live broadcast in progress
In the discussions between the presidents, the geopolitical situation and the bilateral relations between Finland and Brazil are discussed, among other things.
President Sauli Niinistö has started an official visit to Brazil on Thursday.
At the beginning of his visit, Niinistö will meet the country’s president in the capital, Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In the discussions between the presidents, the geopolitical situation, common global challenges, current regional issues and the bilateral relations between Finland and Brazil are on display.
The visit lasts two days.
Lula was elected president at the beginning of the year. He defeated the right-wing ex-president in the elections Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters did not agree to accept the result of the democratic elections. Bolsonaro himself also questioned the legality of the elections.
In January, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the presidential palace, congressional premises and the Supreme Court, breaking windows and furniture, destroying art and writing demands for a military coup on the walls.
Criminal investigations have been opened into the riot, and it also prompted numerous Brazilians to march in the streets to defend democracy.
Lula has caused indignation in the West with his comments on the war in Ukraine.
He has called for a negotiated solution between Ukraine and Russia and accused the United States of inciting the war by arming Ukraine. He has also said that Ukraine is complicit in the war of aggression launched by Russia.
“Although my government condemns the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, we support a negotiated political solution to the conflict,” Lula stated in April.
The background of Lula’s statements on Russia is partly Brazil’s close relations with Russia, for example in the form of trade, explains a political researcher Oliver Stuenkel in Foreign Policy magazine.
In the background, there is also the wider disappointment of the global South with Western countries.
“Brazilians often find Western rhetoric hypocritical,” Stuenkel wrote, referring to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, among other things.
Instead of condemning Russia’s war of aggression, Brazil, China and many African countries, for example, have viewed the war as a conflict between Russia and Western countries. This is also partly in line with the goals of Russian propaganda. Among other things, the United States has accused Brazil of “repeating Russian propaganda”.
Lula has since softened his statements by stating that Ukraine is the big one in the war victim.
Brazil is also the only BRICS country that voted in favor of the resolution demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine at the beginning of the year. The BRICS countries refer to Russia, India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
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