TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Brazil opposed to ejecting Russia from G20
"We've seen initiatives emerge in various international organizations... to expel or suspend Russia. Brazil is clearly opposed to those initiatives, in line with our traditional position in favor of multilateralism and international law," Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told a Senate session Thursday.
Change Size
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) meets with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro at the Kremlin, in Moscow, on February 16, 2022. (AFP/Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik /)
Brazil is "clearly opposed" to barring Russia from the G20, the foreign minister said, as the US led a push to exclude Moscow from the group over its invasion of Ukraine.
"We've seen initiatives emerge in various international organizations... to expel or suspend Russia. Brazil is clearly opposed to those initiatives, in line with our traditional position in favor of multilateralism and international law," Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told a Senate session Thursday.
The comment came after US President Joe Biden said he backed kicking Russia out of the G20 group of major economies, or "if that can't be done," inviting Ukraine to "attend the meetings as well."
The push to exclude Russia has divided G20 members.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin should be barred from the group's November summit in Bali.
But China called Russia an "important member," while Indonesia, the G20's rotating chair, said it would remain "impartial."
Franca said the United Nations, not the G20, was the place to "debate issues of peace and security."
"The most important thing right now is to have all international forums functioning fully," including the G20, he said.
"And that means having all countries present, including Russia."
President Jair Bolsonaro has insisted Brazil remain "neutral" over the Ukraine conflict.
His stance has drawn criticism from some quarters, including the Biden administration, which rebuked the far-right president for voicing Brazil's "solidarity" with Russia when Bolsonaro visited Putin in Moscow eight days before the Ukraine invasion.
