"Brazil is back!" Pedro Sánchez and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated in unison, who yesterday sealed their meeting in Moncloa with a strong hug to promote a renewed strategic partnership between Spain and Brazil. A broad agreement, to boost the bilateral, economic and commercial connection, which puts an end to the four-year suspension of political relations with the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Sánchez and Lula staged a solid political harmony, and agreed on the firm commitment to peace in Ukraine despite evidence of disagreement on how to approach the resolution of the war.
The re-elected Brazilian president then moved to the Royal Palace, where he met with Felipe VI in an honor lunch that marked the end of his first official visit to Spain after his new investiture and the return of the colossus Ibero-American on the international scene after Bolsonaro's stage of isolationism.
"We share a vision of the world", emphasized Sánchez alongside Lula, after the signing of several memoranda of understanding between the two delegations, which on the Spanish side included the three vice-presidents, Nadia Calviño, Yolanda Díaz and Teresa Ribera, and ministers José Manuel Albares, Héctor Gómez, Diana Morant and Joan Subirats. "We share the defense of the environment against a blind and suicidal denialism, the commitment to science and health against the superstition of the anti-vaccines, the value of civilization against barbarism and the extreme defense of democracy against the hordes that we to see in Washington or in Brasilia", stressed the Spanish president.
Sánchez and Lula also agreed to promote the trade agreement of the EU and Mercosur, taking advantage of the fact that both will assume their respective presidencies in turn in the second half of the year. The Spanish president pledged to try to "overcome the resistance" of French Emmanuel Macron to this point.
But in addition to the similarities, Sánchez and Lula also showed dissonance over the war in Ukraine. The Spanish president was "conciliatory, but firm", they emphasized in Moncloa. As he did before the President of China, Xi Jinping, in his meeting in Beijing on March 31, Sánchez asked Lula not to put Ukraine and Russia on the same scale, in a kind of geopolitical equidistance. "In this war, there is an aggressor and there is an attacked. The aggressor is Putin and the attacked is the people of Ukraine, who are only fighting for their territorial integrity, their national sovereignty and their freedom", said Sánchez. Not long after, Xi's call to Zelenski transpired, one of the demands that Sánchez made to the Chinese president in his meeting in Beijing, as they immediately pointed out in La Moncloa.
"If we want the peace to be just and lasting, it is essential that the voice of Ukraine and President Zelenski be heard and that their peace formula be taken into account," said Sánchez in front of Lula, as he did in front of Xi. However, he thanked the Brazilian for his "involvement and commitment" in the search for peace and acknowledged his interest in promoting a group of countries that act as mediators. "We have different points of view, but it is very positive that Brazil is involved", they emphasize in Moncloa.
Lula, in turn, condemned "the violation of Ukraine's rights by Russia". But he insisted that what is now essential is not to determine "who is right", whether Ukraine or Russia. What is a priority, in his opinion, is to stop the drama. "We need to stop the war and start negotiating", he claimed. And he rejected the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, which in his opinion only serves to prolong the tragedy. He also questioned the UN Security Council, and defended the involvement of Brazil, China, Egypt or South Africa in the resolution of the conflict. "It is necessary to create a G-20 of peace, which is able to stop the war". And he invited Sánchez: "I would be delighted if Spain participated in this mediation team".
However, Lula admitted that his position is influenced by the distance from the war scene. "I understand the role of the EU, because the war is on its continent. We are 14,000 kilometers away, and that is why our position is more comfortable", he assumed. But he refused to sell missiles that end up in Ukraine: "Brazil does not want to enter the war."
And, in a position contrary to that of Spain and the EU, it showed equidistance in the territorial question. "I'm not the one who has to decide who owns Crimea, it's the Russians and the Ukrainians who have to decide," Lula excused himself. "First of all, you have to stop the war, and then talk."
At the subsequent lunch, the King argued that peace in Ukraine must respect "national sovereignty" and "territorial integrity" so that it can be lasting.
