Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in phone conversations with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva regarding their joint work within the BRICS group ahead of the economic bloc’s leaders’ summit. Lula has been a vocal advocate of ditching the U.S. dollar in favor of national currencies and a proposed common BRICS currency.
Putin and Lula Discuss Various Topics, Including Ukraine War and BRICS Cooperation
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, engaged in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, following his discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week. Among the topics the leaders discussed was cooperation across major multinational organizations, such as the BRICS. The BRICS economic bloc comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
In a tweet Friday, Lula wrote (translated from Portuguese by Google):
I just spoke by phone with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. I thanked him for an invitation to attend the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, and replied that I could not go to Russia at the moment.
The Brazilian president added that concerning the war in Ukraine, he “reiterated Brazil’s willingness, along with India, Indonesia, and China, to talk to both sides of the conflict in pursuit of peace.”
According to an announcement published by the Kremlin Friday, the Brazilian president shared his impressions of participating in the recent Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and the two leaders exchanged their assessments of the situation around Ukraine.
In addition, Putin and Lula discussed the Russian-Brazilian strategic partnership and expressed mutual interest in deepening cooperation in various fields, the Kremlin detailed, noting:
Issues related to joint work within the BRICS and other multilateral platforms were considered.
“The conversation was constructive and informative,” the Kremlin concluded.
Xi Jinping and Lula Discuss Global Situation, Strategic Partnership, and BRICS Summit
Lula also tweeted that he had a conversation on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Brazilian leader wrote Thursday:
Yesterday I had a telephone conversation with the president of China, Xi Jinping. We talked about the global situation, the need for peace in Ukraine, the participation of our countries in the BRICS summit in August. And about our strategic partnership at the bilateral level.
The BRICS group has been pushing for de-dollarization and there is a proposal for a common BRICS currency that is expected to be discussed at the next leaders’ summit in August.
Lula has voiced support for the creation of a BRICS currency. “I am in favor of creating, within the BRICS, a trading currency between our countries, just like the Europeans created the euro,” he said in April. In addition, he urged developing countries to abandon the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency.
Putin said this week that Russia is actively working with major international associations, including the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as well as multilateral organizations in Latin America and Africa.
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