Brazil on Saturday rejected US criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s recent trip to Russia amid the escalating crisis with Ukraine.
The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “sorry tone” from a Friday statement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said that the visit had left Brazil isolated from the “great majority of the international community”.
The United States tried to dissuade Bolsonaro from visiting Russia, which has been sending troops to the borders with Ukraine.
According to Washington, the Russian leader is preparing to invade his neighbor.
But the extreme right Bolsonaro ignored it, meeting with his Russian counterpart on Wednesday and expressing Brazil’s “solidarity” with Russia.
A day later, the US State Department issued a rare scolding to Brazil, normally considered an ally.
“The moment when the president of Brazil expresses his solidarity with Russiajust as Russian forces prepare to launch attacks on Ukrainian cities, it couldn’t be worse,” he said.
Asked about Bolsonaro’s “solidarity” comment at a White House news conference on Friday, Psaki said: “The vast majority of the international community is united in its point of view, a shared point of view that invading another country, trying to take part of its territory, terrorizing its population, is certainly not aligned with global values.
“For this reason, I believe that Brazil can be on the other side of where the majority of the international community is,” he added.
Brazil “regrets the tone of the statement by the White House press secretary,” responded the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
The country “does not find such extrapolations of the president’s comments to be constructive or helpful.”
Bolsonaro, who took office in 2019, forged close ties with the United States under President Donald Trump.
But relations have cooled since the Republican mogul left the White House. Instead, President Joe Biden has criticized Brazil for increasing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest under Bolsonaro. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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