The nonaligned country has strong diplomatic traditions—and its president is a pro at building global coalitions.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the resurgence of nonalignment across the global south has baffled Western officials. The United States and its allies seem confused that many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America refuse to join the sanctions campaign against Russia or ship weapons to Ukraine. Many Latin American countries’ neutrality—and their unwillingness to become de facto belligerents in a European war—is described as shameful, if not a moral failure. Some even go so far as to say that the region’s overwhelmingly nonaligned stance puts the rules-based international order at risk.
Brazil—Latin America’s largest country and diplomatic heavyweight—has come under particular scrutiny for its position on Ukraine. While the United States has pledged to support the war in Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vocally pressed for a truce and peaceful solution to the conflict; some frank statements by Lula have generated pushback in Washington. But Brazil remains the country best positioned to act as an honest broker to end the war in Ukraine—precisely because it has refused to take sides.
Lula got to work on his peace proposal quickly after his inauguration in January. During a February visit to Washington, Lula suggested to U.S. President Joe Biden that Brazil create a so-called “peace club”—a group of countries that would facilitate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and that might include rising powers such as China, India, Indonesia, and Turkey.
In March, a 30-minute video call between Lula and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed that Brazil means business. Lula used the opportunity to convey to Zelensky the urgency of a negotiated solution to the war. Then, later that month, Lula’s chief advisor Celso Amorim traveled to Moscow, where—breaking all protocol—he was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. On his return trip to Brazil, Amorim met with a top foreign affairs advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron has also appeared interested in negotiating an end to the conflict.
The result of Amorim’s Putin meeting was uncertain at best, with Amorim acknowledging that neither side is ready to sit down for talks. Still, Amorim’s personal audience with Putin—and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent trip to Brazil—indicate how seriously Moscow is taking proposals from the government in Brasília.
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