Calls to end the fighting and open negotiations in Ukraine and the Middle East followed each other on Wednesday at the BRICS summit in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin said he welcomed offers of mediation from his partners.
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Regarding Ukraine, the positions of Moscow and Kiev currently appear irreconcilable: the fighting is intense, and potential peace negotiations remain highly hypothetical, 32 months after the start of the Russian offensive.
In the Middle East, the war that broke out in Gaza due to the bloody attack launched by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023 has spread to Lebanon, where the Israeli army is intensifying its offensive against the pro-Iran Shiite Hezbollah.
In a joint statement, the BRICS group called on Israel to “immediately stop” attacks against the United Nations force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and “preserve the territorial integrity” of this country, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on his partners to “use all means.” Their collective and individual capabilities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon.”
At the same time, Hamas announced to Agence France-Presse that one of its leaders, Musa Abu Marzouk, went to Moscow for talks aimed at “putting an end to the (Israeli) aggression and war in Gaza and the region.”
Brazilian President Lula, speaking via video at a BRICS leaders' meeting in Kazan, warned that conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East “have the potential to become global.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping has set three principles: “do not expand the battlefield” in Ukraine, “do not escalate the fighting”, and “do not be provoked by either side”, in order to calm the situation as quickly as possible.
The previous day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his support for efforts to “quickly restore peace and stability.”
Brokerage offers
His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the mediation offers made by the partner countries were welcomed “positively by the Russian president.”
However, these calls for peace and talks made by the leaders gathered in Kazan will not respond to the desire of the European Union, which urged them to demand that Vladimir Putin “put an immediate end” to the conflict in Ukraine.
Iran, which is accused of supplying Russia with drones and short-range missiles, is one of the main opponents of the United States on the international scene, and Masoud Pezeshkian praised on Wednesday before Vladimir Putin the quality of the “strategic and fundamental” relationship. With Russia.
China, Vladimir Putin's main backer against the West, has so far refrained from publicly condemning the Russian attack in Ukraine.
Agence France-Presse
Xi Jinping and Masoud Pezeshkian also spoke on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit, Xinhua News Agency reported.
For its part, Kiev estimated, on Wednesday, that Russia had failed to obtain comprehensive support in Kazan for its attack in Ukraine.
“The BRICS summit, which Russia intended to use to divide the world, once again showed that the majority of the world still stands with Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to discuss the Ukraine file with Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin. This will be the first interview in Russia between the two men since April 2022.
In Kazan, “the Secretary-General will reaffirm his well-known positions on the war in Ukraine and the conditions for a just peace on the basis of the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations and international law,” in particular territorial integrity, he stressed Tuesday, one of the most important issues. Its official spokesman, Farhan Haq. For its part, Kyiv criticized this trip.
Maduro, Erdogan
With this summit, Vladimir Putin aims to demonstrate the failure of the Western policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation targeting his country.
He warned on Wednesday that behind the practice of “unilateral sanctions” there was a “strong possibility of a crisis.” According to him, “the process of forming a multipolar world is underway.”
The meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, another enemy of the Westerners, just like the project of an alternative international payment platform to the SWIFT system, from which major Russian banks have been excluded since 2022, is part of the same liberalization logic. Which is considered Western “hegemony”.
Agence France-Presse
Welcoming Mr. Maduro to Kazan, Putin said: “Venezuela is one of Russia’s long-standing reliable partners in Latin America and the world, and mutually beneficial cooperation is developing in all areas.”
With four members (Brazil, Russia, India and China) when it was created in 2009 and joining South Africa in 2010, the BRICS group (the initials of these countries in English) were joined this year by Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt and the United States. United Arab Emirates.
Türkiye, a NATO member, requested to join the BRICS group in September.
Therefore, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to Kazan on Wednesday, where he spoke with Vladimir Putin, who praised the “constructive and good-neighborly” relations with Ankara.
The head of Saudi diplomacy, Faisal bin Farhan, also arrived on Wednesday night to Thursday in Kazan “as a country invited to join the group,” as his ministry announced on the 10th of this month.
