Celso Amorim, special advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, said he does not know whether Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, is “bothered” after criticizing Brazil and China for a proposal to end the war against Russia.
“You didn’t tell me, I didn’t understand,” commented Amorim.
The former chancellor spoke to the press after a meeting with Chinese representatives to call on countries to join a diplomatic proposal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York.
The initiative, named “Friends for Peace”, envisages the establishment of necessary conditions for peace through diplomatic channels — not military channels.
Amorim commented that there was no dissent among the delegations present, but that the United Arab Emirates could not sign the document as they were involved in negotiations. Additionally, Mexico addressed issues with “legitimate security concerns.”
“I think it’s a first step. We had already signed in May, but it was just Brazil and China. Now it has broad participation. I was very pleased that Minister Mauro Vieira also participated, because it provided greater institutionality”, commented the former chancellor.
“It took time, because it takes time for people to convince themselves that other paths are leading nowhere. But we did it, it’s just a group of friends, from peace-friendly countries. It’s not ‘friends of Russia’, nor ‘friends of Ukraine’, that’s all. It’s ‘friends of peace’”, he concluded.
Representatives from delegations from France, Switzerland, Vietnam, Thailand, Ethiopia and Colombia were also present at this Friday’s meeting.
Amorim finally commented that Russia and Ukraine will be “part of the process when the right time comes”.
Zelensky’s criticism and Lula’s speech
In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday (25), Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Brazil and China for the peace proposal presented for the war in Ukraine.
“We need to make it clear: the war is over. This is the formula for peace. What part of this could be unacceptable to anyone who defends the UN Charter? If anyone in the world seeks alternatives to any of these points or tries to ignore any of them, it probably means that they themselves want to be part of what Putin is doing: the point they ignore reveals the desire they are hiding,” declared Zelensky.
In a press conference on the same day, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) reinforced that there is no “military solution” to the war in Ukraine.
“There is a proposal from China that has been praised by some people along with Brazil and we are willing to know if the two countries are interested in talking, because, if they both don’t want to, there will be no conversation”, added Lula at the time.
This content was originally published in Celso Amorim about Zelensky: “I don’t know if he’s bothered” on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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