Amorim meets with Putin and says doors to peace are not “totally closed”.
(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday it will be forced to take “counter-measures” to ensure Russia’s security in response to Finland’s joining the Western military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Helsinki’s decision to join the bloc an “invasion” of Russia’s security and said the NATO structure is hostile to Russia.
Amorim meets with Putin and says doors to peace are not “totally closed,” according to CNN Brazil
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s special advisor, Celso Amorim, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, in a meeting in which they discussed Brazil and Russia’s bilateral relationship and possible negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, he told CNN Brazil.
“To say that the doors are open (to a peace negotiation) would be an exaggeration, but to say that they are totally closed is also not true,” Amorim told CNN Brazil, the first to report on the former foreign minister’s trip to Russia, which was not previously disclosed.
Neither the Planalto nor Itamaraty were contacted for immediate comment.
Amorim has been one of the spokespersons for Lula’s proposal for the creation of a group of countries to join together in a negotiation effort to end the conflict on European territory. In the Brazilian government’s view, in addition to Brazil, the group could include China and Turkey, for example.
In addition to Amorim’s visit to Moscow, Brazil is expected to receive a visit from Russian Chancellor Sergei Lavrov on April 17, a diplomatic source confirmed to Reuters.
The Planalto’s special advisor told Reuters in a recent interview that the idea is to take the issue of peace negotiations with Ukraine to discuss with President Xi Jinping during the Brazilian president’s state visit to China.
The trip to Beijing, scheduled for the end of March, was rescheduled for next week after Lula’s cancellation due to pneumonia.
On his return from Russia, Amorim stopped by Emmanuel Macron’s France, the diplomatic source and another government official told Reuters, but did not offer further details on the former foreign minister’s agenda in Paris. Macron was one of the European leaders to hear Lula’s proposal for Ukraine.
Putin sparked “historic” Nordic expansion of NATO with war in Ukraine, says Stoltenberg
Finland’s accession to the Western military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), scheduled for this Tuesday, will be a historic event and a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the defense bloc’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance will ensure that Sweden also becomes a full member.
“The (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s stated goal of the invasion of Ukraine was to get less NATO,” he told reporters before a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.
“He is getting exactly the opposite… Finland today, and soon also Sweden, will become a full member of the alliance,” he said.