The Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) has decided to suspend a visit scheduled for April by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to Rio de Janeiro.
Mishustin was due to travel to Rio to participate in the meeting of the Brazilian-Russian High-Level Cooperation Commission, chaired by the Russian prime minister and, on the Brazilian side, by Vice President Hamilton Mourão.
The government’s internal assessment is that receiving Mishustin in Brazil would be interpreted as a sign of alignment with President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. It would be a signal against what the country started to adopt, as of Friday (25), at the UN Security Council (United Nations): condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the harshest terms. , in violation of the Charter of the United Nations.
The intention of the two countries to organize Mishustin’s trip was included in the joint communiqué between Bolsonaro and Putin, on the occasion of the Brazilian’s visit to Moscow.
“[Os dois líderes] underlined the importance of the VIII session of the High Level Cooperation Commission to be held in the first four months of 2022, in Rio de Janeiro”, says the text.
It was at the February 16 meeting, when Putin was already accused of planning a military incursion into Ukraine, that Bolsonaro expressed solidarity with Russia — in a speech criticized by the Joe Biden (US) government and interpreted as an expression of sympathy for the Kremlin’s military threats. .
The High Level Commission is the most important instance of intergovernmental coordination of issues related to relations between Brazil and Russia. Its function is to organize actions in the different ministries of bilateral affairs.
The commission’s high-level meetings were at a standstill. The last one took place in September 2015, at the time led by then Vice President Michel Temer and former Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev.
According to interlocutors, even before the outbreak of the conflict, Itamaraty and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs were discussing the dates of the meeting between Mourão and Mishustin.
Both parties agreed that Brazil, as host, should propose a date for the meeting in April.
However, this week the Bolsonaro government decided not to present a suggested date – which, in practice, means canceling the visit.
Sought this Saturday (26), the Itamaraty did not respond to a question sent by the sheet.
In addition to Brazil having joined the chorus of a large part of the international community condemning the invasion of Ukraine, the diagnosis at Itamaraty is that Mourão’s recent statements are also an obstacle to the confirmation of the agenda.
On Thursday (24), Mourão criticized the Russian offensive, said that Brazil is not neutral in the face of the conflict and defended the West with Ukraine. He also compared Putin’s action to the military expansionism of Germany under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
“There has to be use of force, really support for Ukraine, more than what is being put on. This is my vision. If the western world simply lets Ukraine fall to the ground, then Moldova will be next. the Baltic States and so on. Just like Hitler Germany did in the late 1930s”, declared the deputy at the time.
Mourão was publicly disallowed by Bolsonaro. But the next day, the Brazilian delegation to the UN joined the United States and its allies in harsh condemnation of the attacks ordered by Moscow.
The resolution supported by Brazil received a total of 11 votes in favour, one against (from Russia) and three abstentions. (China, India and United Arab Emirates). As the Russians have veto power, it was not adopted.
Brazil’s UN ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho told the council that Russia’s security concerns do not give it the right to threaten the territory of another state.
“The security concerns expressed in recent years by the Russian Federation, particularly with regard to the strategic balance in Europe, do not give the country the right to threaten the territorial integrity and sovereignty of another state,” he said.
Costa Filho’s speech marked a turning point in the demonstrations that the Brazilian government had been adopting until then. There was a concern at the Itamaraty not to alienate Putin, who leads a country considered a strategic partner of Brazil and a partner in the BRICS (a bloc also formed by India, Russia and South Africa).
Since the beginning of the crisis triggered by Russia’s military deployment on Ukraine’s borders, the US government and other allies have tried to secure Brazil’s support in international organizations.
In the words of a foreign diplomat who is negotiating with the Itamaraty, it is necessary to create a framework of total diplomatic isolation against Putin.
