Brazil’s President Lula da Silva shares a common feature with US decaying leader Joe Biden: he loves the sound of his own voice, has a highly exaggerated opinion of his own oratorical powers, is very often misinformed, and every now and then has to be corrected by his aides and advisers.
And so it happened again, just as Lula was living what amounts to the best moment of his lackluster administration.
In New Delhi, there was a ceremony with the symbolic gesture marking the ceremonial handover of the G20 presidency from India to Brazil, where it will be held in 2024.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed the gavel to Brazilian President Lula da Silva at the end of the G20 Summit held in Delhi on September 9-10.
It crowned a Summit where the Global South flexed its geopolitical muscles, and Brazilian diplomacy played a relevant part.
If Lula could have managed to get away in silence after the scripted affair, it would be a major PR victory just like he need as his domestic agenda is in disarray.
But no – Lula had to bask in the press attention, and had to hear the sound of his own voice. So he was asked the obvious question, and – lo and behold – he was NOT prepared for it!
Lula was asked whether Vladimir Putin would be able to attend the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 2026, since Brazil is a member of the ICC, and there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
So, his first response was pure Lula: all feelings, no intel to back it.
Al-Jazeera reported:
“Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro next year.
Lula, speaking to the Firstpost news show at the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Delhi on Saturday, said Putin would be invited to next year’s event.
He added that he himself planned to attend a BRICS bloc of developing nations meeting due in Russia before the Rio meeting.
‘I believe that Putin can go easily to Brazil,” Lula said. ‘What I can say to you is that if I’m president of Brazil, and he comes to Brazil, there’s no way he will be arrested’.”
The world fell on top of Lula’s head, and spoiled his perfect photo-op. So he had to do what he does: backtracks, explains, qualifies, argues that ‘we actually didn’t understand what he meant’.
Euronews reported:
“Brazil’s president has qualified his words a day after claiming an International Criminal Court arrest warrant would be ignored if the Russian president visited Rio for the G20 summit in 2024.
Brazil’s president has back-tracked on a personal assurance that Vladimir Putin would not be arrested if he attended next year’s G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro.
{…] He said he hoped the presidents of China and Russia would come to Rio and that by then the war would be over. […] “We will invite you, we hope you participate. I hope that when we hold the summit it will be over.”
The Brazilian Judiciary is the one who will decide if Putin can safely, Lula finally decided.
In the middle of the confusion of his own making, he did have a good point about the ICC, but it did not draw any attention.
Lula: ‘I’m not saying I’m going to withdraw from the ICC right away. I didn’t even know such a court existed. But I want to know why the US didn’t sign the agreement, why India didn’t sign the agreement, why China didn’t sign the agreement, why Russia didn’t sign the agreement but Brazil did? What made Brazil do it?’
Reuters reported:
“If Putin decides to join (next year’s summit), it is the judiciary’s power to decide (on a possible arrest) and not my government,” Lula said at a press conference on Monday, rowing back from his earlier remarks.
He would review why Brazil had signed up to the ICC treaty, he said: “I want to know why the U.S, India and China didn’t sign the ICC treaty and why our country signed it.”
Lula’s earlier comments that Putin would not be arrested had drawn criticism in Brazil.”
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
