**Lula: Peace Club To De-Dollarization**
Lula: Peace Club To De-Dollarization
_Authored by Andrew Korybko via The Automatic Earth blog,_ (https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/04/lula-peace-club-to-de-dollarization/)
Brazilian President Lula was **successful in reaching an agreement to de-dollarize his country’s trade with China,** the significance of which was earlier explained in the context of his country’s grand strategy here (https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-de-dollarization-of-brazilian), **but failed to convince (https://newsingermany.com/xi-refuses-to-join-lulas-peace-club/) his counterpart to join a so-called “peace club” on Ukraine during their summit.** This is no small shortcoming either since it was promoted by his Foreign Minister as one of the reasons behind his trip in an interview that he gave to the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/24b59a38-d11f-4333-966f-644250ffff40) (FT) late last month.
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Globally prominent outlets such as Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-12/xi-hosts-brazil-s-lula-in-diplomatic-push-for-ukraine-cease-fire), France24 (https://www.france24.com/en/video/20230412-lula-in-china-brazil-president-looking-to-strengthen-ties-gain-ukraine-aid), the US Government-run “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (https://www.rferl.org/a/china-brazils-lula-visit-ukraine-peace-crimea/32362646.html)” (RFERL), and others all accordingly reported that this issue would be high on the agenda during Lula’s talks with President Xi. His supporters on social media also went wild getting everyone’s expectations up about this as well, even though “Brazil & China Are Poles Apart When It Comes To Their Envisaged End Games In Ukraine (https://korybko.substack.com/p/brazil-and-china-are-poles-apart)” so it was never likely that anything would come of this.
While China, India, and South Africa have consistently abstained from anti-Russian UNGA Resolutions, Brazil bucked the BRICS trend by always voting against Russia except (https://www.axios.com/2022/04/07/un-suspend-russia-human-rights-council-bucha) when it came to suspending it from the Human Rights Council. **Lula became the first BRICS leader to personally condemn Russia in his joint statement (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/10/joint-statement-following-the-meeting-between-president-biden-and-president-lula/) with Biden back in February**, after which he ordered his diplomats to vote in support (https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/02/1133847) of the latest anti-Russian UNGA Resolution later that same month.
Foreign Minister Vieira was obviously well aware of the sharp differences between Brazil and China’s officially envisaged end games to this conflict yet he still made it seem to FT like there was a chance that the People’s Republic would tacitly support his country’s position via participation in the “peace club”. That was nothing more than wishful thinking (https://astutenews.com/2022/07/putin-cautioned-russian-strategic-forecasters-against-indulging-in-wishful-thinking/), which belied Brazilian diplomats’ refusal to acknowledge China’s principled approach to this conflict since they in hindsight seemed to assume that it was flexible.
**Reality slapped them and their supporters in the face upon the publication of the joint Brazilian-Chinese communique on Friday,** which can be read in English on the official website of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs here (https://www.gov.br/mre/en/contact-us/press-area/press-releases/joint-communique-between-the-federative-republic-of-brazil-and-the-people2019s-republic-of-china-on-the-deepening-of-their-global-strategic-partnership-beijing-14-april-2023). The ninth paragraph of that document will now be shared in full so as to prove Lula’s failure to sway President Xi to his country’s side contrary to the unrealistic expectation that Vieira set for his trip when talking to the FT late last month:
> _“Both parties stated that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way out of the crisis in Ukraine and that all efforts leading to a peaceful solution to the crisis must be encouraged and supported. Brazil received in a positive way the proposal by China that offers reflections conducive to the search for a peaceful solution to the crisis. China received in a positive way the efforts by Brazil in favour of peace. The parties made an appeal for more countries to play a constructive role in the promotion of a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine. The parties decided to keep in contact on this matter.”_
**As can be seen, absolutely nothing of tangible significance came from Lula’s over-hyped “peace club” proposal.** This paragraph of their joint …
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/lula-peace-club-de-dollarization