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Macron, Scholz Get Angry With Brazil

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Macron, Scholz Get Angry With Brazil

Because of the decision on Ukraine.

European delegates at the G20 summit in Brazil, in particular, Olaf Szoltz and Emmanuel Macron, were unhappy with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's decision to end talks and issue the group's final statement a day early to curtail prickly discussion on the war in Ukraine, sources said.

As Reuters reports, citing diplomatic sources, the communique is usually published at the end of the summit, but Lula decided to approve the text at the end of the plenary session on Monday — at a time when the leaders of France, Germany and the United States were not in the room.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday he regretted that the G20 communique did not underscore Russia's responsibility in starting the Ukraine war, particularly on the 1,000th day of its full-scale invasion.

“It is too little when the G20 cannot find the words to make it clear Russia is responsible,” he said.

Macron also expressed dissatisfaction with Lula’s action, noting that the communique “fell short of the position we could have had”. He added that the text would have benefited from being more explicit on the war.

“This does not change anything in France's position: it is a war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine and our priority today is to obtain a lasting peace,” Macron noted.

A European official called Lula's maneuver “brutal” but his country decided to respect the prerogative of the summit host to decide when to issue the joint statement.

Brazil hastened approval of the communique on Monday night to avoid the risk of the summit ending without a final declaration, even though the Europeans were asking for stronger language on Russia's role in the war, three Brazilian diplomats who were present at the talks told Reuters.

The countries reached agreement on a final statement early Sunday morning, but France and Germany began pressuring Brazil in the afternoon to return to the text in light of major Russian airstrikes in Ukraine. Brazil refused.

“To reopen the text would have jeopardized the entire effort of a week of negotiations,” a Brazilian official told Reuters.

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