Meeting Xi Jinping This Week, Brazilian President Lula Will Discuss Stopping the Russian-Ukrainian War

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. (Wikimedia Commons/Senado Federal)

JAKARTA - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva departed from Brazil on Tuesday for an official visit to China, where he aims to convince President Xi Jinping to form a group of nations to broker an end to Russia's war with Ukraine.

President Lula's visit, which was postponed from March for health reasons, is aimed at resetting relations with Brazil's biggest trading partner, after four freezing years under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

President Lula is also seeking to return Brazil to the international stage, after a period of relative isolation by Bolsonaro, who has rejected his country's traditional role in multilateral forums, drawing criticism for not protecting the Amazon rainforest.

Meeting President Xi on Friday, President Lula said he would suggest a proposal to broker peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, an initiative, which only French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed among Western leaders.

"I believe that Ukraine and Russia are waiting for others to say, 'Let's sit down and talk,'" President Lula told reporters, cited from Reuters, April 12.

President Lula is known to have suggested a peace solution could include the return of the newly invaded territories, though not Crimea - an option, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outright rejected.

For his initiative to move forward, President Lula needs China to send a message to Russia, said a European diplomat in Brasilia.

"Lula knows that China is the only country that Russia will listen to," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity and adding: "People are waiting to see if it gets traction from other countries, like France and Germany."

Earlier, President Lula's foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, flew to Moscow in March to push for peace talks, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Brasilia on April 17.

Before arriving in Beijing, President Lula will visit Shanghai to attend the inauguration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as head of the New Development Bank founded in 2014 by the BRICS group of the main developing countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

"The fact that President Lula will lead a large delegation to China for a state visit soon after his recovery fully reflects how important China and Brazil attach to this visit and to the development of bilateral relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.

President Lula will be traveling with a delegation of eight cabinet ministers, including Environment Minister Marina Silva, and five governors from the northeastern states of Brazil, including Bahia, where a Chinese consortium is building a record-breaking bridge.

About 20 agreements are to be signed, including the creation of the sixth satellite in a joint program that began in 1988, which will be used to monitor the Amazon, Brazil's foreign ministry said.

Furthermore, Brazil also expects China to set up funds to help restore forests and sustainable development in Brazil, including green hydrogen production, President Lula told Reuters.

China overtook the United States as Brazil's main trading partner in 2009, a major market for Brazilian soybeans, iron ore and oil. Brazil is now the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America, driven by spending on high-voltage power transmission lines and oil production.

During Bolsonaro's presidency, many Chinese companies dropped plans with the federal government, instead pushing for business with state governments, especially in the less affluent northeast where Lula's Labor Party is strongest.