The Brazilian presidency announced today, Friday, that President Lula da Silva will postpone an official visit that he was scheduled to pay to China on Saturday, after it was confirmed that he had pneumonia.
Lula was scheduled to leave for China on Saturday for a five-day visit, accompanied by a senior delegation of politicians and businessmen, carrying a plan for peace in Ukraine.
Less than three months after his accession to the presidency, Lula is trying to revitalize Brazil’s diplomatic relations and “talk to everyone”, especially since Brazil was largely excluded during the era of former right-wing and populist President Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula had visited Argentina and the United States in February, before China.
China is Brasilia’s most important trading partner, but Lula also seeks, through his visit, to shed light on the problem of the extreme right in his country, and its open hostility to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Brazilian president is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, next Tuesday, and Brazilian newspapers said that he would then present the Brasilia plan for peace in Ukraine.
Brazil, China and Russia are three members of the BRICS group. Neither Beijing nor Brasilia imposed economic sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, but they did not support it militarily.
Lula-Shi’s meeting comes after the latter’s travel to Moscow and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lula, a veteran left-wing politician, facilitated international negotiations between 2007 and 2010 on the Iranian nuclear file, and it was reached later in 2015 during the era of former Democratic US President Barack Obama.
For its part, China proposed a peace plan consisting of 12 points, which guarantees respect for the sovereignty and unity of all Ukrainian lands. This plan was cautiously approved by Putin, while the West criticized it harshly, pointing out that Xi in fact tacitly supports the Russian invasion.
