By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday criticized Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s declaration of “solidarity” with Russia during a visit there this week as it amassed troops near Ukraine’s borders, raising fears it is planning to invade.
“The timing of the president of Brazil expressing solidarity with Russia, just as Russian forces are preparing to launch attacks on Ukrainian cities, could not be worse,” the State Department said.
“It undermines international diplomacy directed at averting a strategic and humanitarian disaster, as well as Brazil’s own calls for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry and spokespeople for Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. statement.
The U.S. comment amounted to unusually brusque criticism of the government of Latin America’s largest country, with which the United States usually has cordial relations.
Bolsonaro was a strong ideological ally of former president Donald Trump and relations have cooled under the administration of President Joe Biden, amid ructions over climate change and other issues.
On Wednesday, during his state visit to Russia, Bolsonaro, alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a statement he was “in solidarity with Russia,” without elaborating.
Later in a joint statement, again alongside Putin, he said: “We stand in solidarity with all those countries that want and strive for peace.”
“We have intense collaboration in key international forums such as the BRICS, the G20 and the United Nations, where we defend the sovereignty of states, respect for international law and the United Nations Charter,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazil and Russia are among a group of major emerging economies, known as the BRICS, that includes India, China and South Africa.
The U.S. State Department said a “false narrative” had been created that the United States had been demanding that Brazil choose between it and Russia, as Bolsonaro chose to proceed with a summit with Putin amid the Ukraine tension.
“That is not the case. This is a matter of Brazil, as an important country, seeming to ignore armed aggression by a large power against a smaller neighbor country, a posture inconsistent with Brazil’s historical emphasis on peace and diplomacy,” the State Department said.
Bolsonaro told Brazilian reporters this week that the Ukraine crisis had come up in his talks with Putin.
“I spoke to President Putin that Brazil supports any country that seeks peace. And that is his intention,” he said
On Thursday, following a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Bolsonaro returned to the topic, saying a war between Russia and the Ukraine was “in no one’s interest.”
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, writing by Christian Plumb, editing by Robert Birsel)
