ISTANBUL
China and Brazil on Tuesday voiced support for an early start to peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, an official statement said ahead of talks between Moscow and Kyiv this week in Istanbul.
A joint statement of support came after President Xi Jinping and his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva’s bilateral meeting in Beijing, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
China and Brazil issued a joint statement “expressing support for an early start of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine,” Mao said on X.
Lula has been on a state visit to China since Sunday.
The statement came as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday that Russia is continuing preparations for peace talks with Ukraine, scheduled for Thursday in the Turkish metropolis.
He did not give the names of the Russian delegation members, saying they would be released as soon as President Vladimir Putin “deems it necessary,” but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov are reportedly among its likely leaders.
The proposal for unconditional talks in Istanbul was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference in Moscow on Sunday. Later, in a phone call with Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Türkiye's readiness to host the meeting.
China and Brazil last year launched the "Friends of Peace" group on the Ukrainian crisis to gather the consensus of the Global South and create conditions for peace talks.
China seeks closer cooperation with Brazil
In a related development, Lula met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the way to strengthen bilateral relations and "comprehensively" expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides.
Li said China is willing to collaborate with Brazil to maintain high-level exchanges, deepen political mutual trust, constantly enrich the strategic connotation, and walk side by side to achieve mutual success on the road to modernization.
He urged both sides to strengthen bilateral cooperation in artificial intelligence, the digital economy, advanced manufacturing, and biomedicine.
"China is willing to maintain close multilateral communication and coordination with Brazil, continue to firmly safeguard the central role of the United Nations, practice true multilateralism, promote an equal and orderly multipolar world, and (promote) a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization," Li was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
Lula, for his part, said his country is willing to expand high-level exchanges with China, align Brazil's development strategy with the Belt and Road Initiative, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.
"Brazil is willing to maintain close multilateral communication and cooperation with China, support multilateralism, jointly resist unilateralism and protectionism, safeguard national sovereignty, and promote the common development of the Global South," Lula said.
*Writing by Aamir Latif