Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the United States should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine

(CNN) Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva He said on Saturday that the United States should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine.

“The US needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace; the EU needs to start talking about peace so that we can convince Putin and Zelensky that peace is in everyone’s interest and that war is only interesting, right now, for the two of them,” Lula said. to reporters in Beijing.

Lula also revealed that during his talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping they discussed forming a group of like-minded leaders on Ukraine.

“I have a theory that I have already defended with Macron, Olaf Schultz of Germany and Biden, and yesterday we discussed it at length with Xi Jinping. It is necessary to form a group of countries willing to find a way to achieve this,” said Lula.

The United States and the European Union were major suppliers of arms and aid to Ukraine after the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out peace talks as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power.

Lula was in Beijing on Friday for talks with Xi Jinping seeking to reset relations between China and Brazil, which had tense moments under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

But it also reveals a growing dimension to the geopolitical questions preoccupying the West.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated much of the diplomatic conversation in Europe and Washington, Lula’s trip to China was Instead focus heavily on tradinghow Chinese investment can help the Brazilian economy get back on track, and the potentially lucrative world of carbon credits.

Like many leaders in middle-income and developing countries, Lula has embraced a laissez-faire policy on the war in Ukraine, rejecting efforts led by US President Joe Biden to unite the international community in the face of Russia’s invasion.