BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived to the Brazilian capital Monday as Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva pushes a diplomatic approach for peace in Ukraine that has irked both Kyiv and the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting between Lavrov and his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira was set in March, when they held a bilateral at the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in New Dehli. They met Monday morning and, according to the foreign ministry\u2019s website, both will meet with Lula in the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lula has refused to provide weapons to Ukraine while proposing a club of nations including Brazil and China to mediate peace. On Sunday, he told reporters in Abu Dhabi that two nations \u2013 both Russia and Ukraine \u2013 had decided to go to war, and a day earlier in Beijing said the U.S. must stop\u00a0\u201cstimulating\u201d the continued fighting\u00a0and start discussing peace. Earlier this month, he\u00a0suggested Ukraine could cede Crimea to end the war, which the spokesperson for Ukraine\u2019s foreign ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWould you offer a Crimea-sized part of Brazil\u2026 just for tranquility\u2019s sake? Then we\u2019ll talk!\u201d Belgium\u2019s former prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, said on Twitter earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of his effort to end hostilities, Lula also has withheld munitions to Ukraine, despite a request from Germany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Lula has said that sending supplies would mean Brazil entering the war, which he seeks to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His position has apparently been appreciated in Moscow. One of roughly 50 leaked classified documents on the platform Discord that have been viewed by the AP said that, as of late February, Russia\u2019s foreign affairs ministry supported Lula\u2019s plan to establish a club of supposedly impartial mediators, as it \u201cwould reject the West\u2019s \u2018aggressor-victim\u2019 paradigm.\u201d The item cited electronic surveillance as the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, Celso Amorim, a special advisor to Brazil\u2019s presidency and former foreign minister, took a discreet trip to Moscow, where he met with President Vladimir Putin. Vieira told reporters this month that Amorim \u201cwent to listen and to say the time has come to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics have argued that Brazil\u2019s position on the Ukraine war aims to avoid confronting a\u00a0key supplier of fertilizer for its soybean plantations, exports from which are largely destined for China. Both Russia and China hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, and Brazil for decades has sought to join them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vinicius Vieira, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank, said Lula\u2019s comments on Ukraine have been \u201cbadly calibrated\u201d and that saying Kyiv should cede Crimea would appear to favor Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe issue of fertilizers is fundamental, but that would be well resolved with Brazil staying neutral, calling all sides to speak, but without saying Ukraine owes something to Russia,\u201d Vieira said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After his stay in Brazil, Lavrov will travel to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an article published on the website of Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry, as well as in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo and Mexican magazine Buzos, Lavrov noted that Russia favored strengthening cooperation with Latin American countries \u201con the basis of mutual support, solidarity and consideration of each other\u2019s interests … in the spirit of strategic partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lavrov has repeatedly stressed that Moscow\u2019s ties with countries such as Brazil are crucial to the foundation of a multipolar world order, which does away with what he described as \u201cthe West\u2019s monopoly on shaping the framework of international life\u201d in a speech to the lower house of Russian parliament in February. In his article, published Thursday, he described the \u201cincreasingly prominent role in the multipolar world order\u201d played by Latin American states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular, Lavrov appeared to cast the countries\u2019 trade relationship \u2014 notably that between Russia and Brazil, especially concerning fertilizers \u2014 as a backdrop and source of leverage for possible discussions regarding the continued refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine, which Moscow would like to ensure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Russia does not in fact possess such leverage, accrording to Andrey Sizov, Managing Director of agricultural markets research firm SovEcon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFertilizer is still exported by private companies and the Kremlin, as far as I know, does not direct them where to export those fertilizers,\u201d Sizov told The Associated Press by phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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