Beijing: China and Brazil have jointly voiced their support for initiating peace talks between Russia and Ukraine at the earliest opportunity. This statement comes ahead of the scheduled discussions between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul later this week.

According to Anadolu Agency, this joint statement followed a bilateral meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Lula da Silva in Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning shared this announcement on social media platform X, highlighting the two countries' commitment to facilitating an early start to the peace negotiations.

President Lula has been on an official state visit to China since Sunday. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed ongoing preparations for the peace talks, set for Thursday in Istanbul. Although the names of the Russian delegation members have not been disclosed, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov are speculated to be among its leaders.

The plan for unconditional talks was initially proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference in Moscow. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later reaffirmed Turkey's readiness to host these talks during a phone conversation with Putin.

In a related context, China and Brazil launched the "Friends of Peace" group last year, aiming to consolidate the Global South's consensus and foster conditions conducive to peace talks concerning the Ukrainian crisis.

In another significant development, President Lula met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing to discuss enhancing bilateral relations. Li emphasized China's willingness to collaborate with Brazil on high-level exchanges, deepening political trust, and expanding cooperation in fields such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and biomedicine.

Chinese Prime Minister Li was quoted by Xinhua news agency as expressing China's commitment to maintaining multilateral communication and promoting an inclusive economic globalization. President Lula echoed similar sentiments, expressing Brazil's eagerness to align its development strategy with China's Belt and Road Initiative and foster closer ties to counter unilateralism and support the Global South's development.