All parties to the conflict in Ukraine must deepen direct dialogue to find a peaceful solution and establish lasting peace, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at the opening of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro today, TASS reported, quoted by BTA.
Lula also appealed to the international community to "not remain indifferent to the genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza".
"Absolutely nothing justifies the terrorist acts committed by "Hamas". "However, we cannot remain indifferent to the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza, the slaughter of innocent civilians and the use of hunger as a weapon of war," the president, quoted by Agence France-Presse, said in his speech at the opening of the meeting.
AFP notes that the high-level meeting begins at a time when truce talks between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement "Hamas" are expected to begin in Doha.
"We are witnessing an unprecedented collapse of multilateralism," Lula noted in his speech, and stressed that the current BRICS meeting is taking place in "the most unfavorable global scenario" since Brazil has hosted this forum - now for the fourth time.
He called on the group to promote peace and mediate conflicts.
„If international governance does not reflect the new "The multipolar reality of the 21st century, it is up to the BRICS to contribute to its renewal," Lula said, quoted by the Associated Press.
Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the meeting for the first time since he became his country's leader in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who participated via videoconference, continues to avoid traveling abroad, mainly because of an international arrest warrant issued after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the AP recalls.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian and Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are also absent from the meeting in Rio de Janeiro.