Despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejecting the initiative, China and Brazil continued their effort on September 27 to bring developing countries together around a plan to end the conflict in Ukraine. Yet, despite the generous plan proposed by Brazil and China, Zelensky insists on pushing his delusional 10-point peace plan.
In all, 17 countries participated in a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Brazilian foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim.
Wang told reporters that they discussed the need to avoid escalating the conflict, avoid using weapons of mass destruction and prevent attacks on nuclear plants, according to Reuters.
“Russia and Ukraine are neighbours that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option,” Wang said, adding that the international community should support a peace conference involving Moscow and Beijing.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the conflict in New York with his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira, the Russian ministry said on its website.
“We talked about our bilateral relations and the upcoming BRICS summit,” Vieira said of the meeting.
In addition to Brazil and China, ten countries from the Global South that were present at the 17-nation meeting, including Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey, signed a statement that Amorim said builds on a six-point plan proposed by Brazil and China in May.
The former Brazilian foreign minister added that the countries would continue to meet in New York under the group Friends for Peace.
In a speech to the assembly on September 25, Zelensky questioned why China and Brazil proposed an alternative to his peace formula. The Ukrainian leader said that “alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles” would only give Moscow the political space to continue the conflict.
When asked about Zelensky’s comment, Amorim told Reuters, “I’m not here to respond either to Zelensky or Putin, just to propose a way for peace.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced further developments in the peace plan that was first proposed in May at the UN General Assembly on September 24, stressing that it was now “crucial” to create the conditions needed for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“This is the message of the six-point understanding that China and Brazil are offering to establish a process of dialogue and an end to hostilities,” Lula added.
The six-point Sino-Brazilian plan calls for:
Non-escalation or provocations by either side.
An international peace conference accepted by both Russia and Ukraine, which includes a “fair discussion” of all peace plans.
An increase of humanitarian assistance to “prevent a humanitarian crisis on a larger scale,” as well as an exchange of prisoners of war and no attacks on civilians.
All possible efforts must be made to “prevent nuclear proliferation and avoid nuclear crisis.”
Attacks on nuclear power plants and other peaceful nuclear facilities “must be opposed.”
Enhanced international cooperation on several issues in order to “protect the stability of global industrial and supply chains.”
The Sino-Brazilian peace plan does not mention Ukraine’s territorial integrity or the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, which is the cause of Zelensky’s outrage as it contradicts his delusional 10-point peace formula, which, among other things, calls for a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, punishing Russian politicians and military leaders, and the return of all territory lost.
Zelensky heavily pushed this plan at the peace summit in Switzerland in June, which Russia and China did not attend, while the low-ranking Brazilian representative in attendance did not sign the resulting communique.
Rather than trying to work with China and Brazil, Zelensky slammed the six-point plan in an interview with Brazilian outlet Metropoles published on September 12, describing it as “destructive.”
“You either support the war, or you don’t support the war. If you don’t support it, then help us stop Russia,” Zelensky said.
With Israel having decimated Hamas and decapitated the leadership of Hezbollah, all the world’s attention is once again firmly on the Middle East. Although Ukraine is an important issue in the lead-up to the US election in November, it is secondary compared to the interests in the Middle East, which will inevitably mean less funds and weapons for the Kiev regime as it appears Israel is preparing a ground operation in south Lebanon.
Therefore, Zelensky will have even fewer capabilities to enforce his delusional peace plan, and the one pushed forward by China and Brazil may very well be the one he will have to fall back on despite describing it as “destructive.”
*
Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
Get Your Free Copy of “Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War”!
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Dawn News via InfoBrics
