Brazil’s Lula would have preferred Putin attended summit in person

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says he would have preferred Russian leader Vladimir Putin to attend the Brics summit in person. 

Lula spoke to the Sunday Times through his office ahead of his arrival in Johannesburg today for the summit at the Sandton Convention Centre from Tuesday to Thursday.

“[Russian foreign] minister [Sergei] Lavrov is a very important and experienced diplomat, but it would be very important that Russia participated in this meeting with its president. We are going to discuss important global issues, such as peace and the fight against inequality, and I would very much like to be able to discuss them personally with President Putin,” said Lula in a written response to questions. 

Lula and his Brics counterparts President Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet in person for the first time since the emergence of the Covid pandemic in 2020. 

Lula will be among at least 40 world leaders, deputies and foreign ministers in the city for the much-anticipated meeting. 

Putin and Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev are the only two leaders expected to attend virtually. South Africa and Russia reached a “mutual agreement” last month that Putin would not attend the summit in person after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March. 

Lula said he was looking forward to the meeting. “After 13 years, here I am once again taking part in a Brics meeting, a group that I helped to found — which is a great joy. 

“My expectation is that our discussions and decisions in South Africa will have an impact on other international forums such as the UN General Assembly, the G-20 and the COP28, in the United Arab Emirates. And that we may prove that another world, a fairer and more globally balanced world, is possible.”

Lula said Brazil would prioritise “discussions concerning ways to face inequalities — income, gender, race — and the fight against hunger, on tackling climate change, which was the centre of the discussions we held at the Amazon Summit, and on a new global governance and the reform of multilateral institutions; as well as debates on the expansion of Brics itself. 

“And there’s another topic that excites me a lot — within Brazil’s return to the international stage — which is the relationship between Brics countries and African countries. During my two previous mandates, I worked hard to strengthen relations between Brazil and African countries, as well as trade and exchanges in the South Atlantic.

“I am glad that here, at this summit in South Africa, we are going to discuss how Brics countries can advance, alongside African countries, to deliver stronger and inclusive development in Africa.”   

On the group's work on challenging the dominance of the dollar system, Lula said: “The world did not depend on the dollar at the time of the gold standard. When the dollar became the standard international currency, without any backing, all the countries in the world found themselves dependent — in their international transactions — on a single country.

“This is why, within Brics, we must discuss alternatives such as a reference currency — not to replace local currencies, but which may allow for greater exchanges between countries such as Brazil and South Africa without depending on the currency of a third country.”

He also shared his views on the tensions playing out between China and India over the disputed border in the Himalayan region and how those affected the Brics family.

“We have always defended and believed in dialogue, diplomacy, as the best form of relationship between countries, and the best way to resolve differences.

“I am sure that at this Brics meeting we will work together on our convergences and continue to evolve our partnerships.”

Ramaphosa has said he will address the nation today to unpack South Africa’s foreign policy going into the Brics meeting. 

“We are no longer in a unipolar world. The tectonic shifts that have taken place in the geopolitical landscape are such that we have a multipolar world that must be celebrated, that no one power can dominate others.”