Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the US should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and “start talking about peace”.
The President made the comments during a visit to China where he met President Xi Jinping.
“The United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace, the European Union needs to start talking about peace,” Mr Lula told reporters in Beijing.
He called on the US and its allies to “convince” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that “peace is in the interest of the world”.
Mr Lula also said the creation of the New Development Bank shows emerging nations can deliver social and economic changes together, and free themselves from the western banking system.
The President began a visit to China by attending the inauguration of the former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff as head of the bank set up by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, collectively known as the BRICS.
He said the bank, based in Shanghai, has great potential “in that it frees emerging countries from submission to traditional financial institutions, which want to govern us”.
Brazil’s leader added that developing nations had enormous financial needs, but existing banks offered only limited credit.
