RIO DE JANERO, June 23. /TASS/. The presidents of Brazil and South Africa, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Cyril Ramaphosa, discussed the situation in Ukraine and the upcoming summit of the BRICS group of nations during a meeting in Paris on Thursday, the Brazilian president’s press service said.
"During the meeting, the leaders discussed the summit of BRICS, a group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, scheduled to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 22-24. They also discussed the possibility of working for the cause of peace with regard to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine," the press service said in a statement.
The South African president informed his Brazilian counterpart about the outcome of the visit that a group of African leaders recently paid to Kiev and Moscow.
A delegation from seven African countries, including the presidents of Zambia, the Comoros, Senegal and South Africa; the prime minister of Egypt; and presidential envoys from the Republic of the Congo and Uganda, visited Kiev on June 16 for talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. The next day, the mission was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. On June 17, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on behalf of the delegation, presented a ten-point plan that could help lay the foundation for a peace process in Ukraine. It was agreed that during the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg in July, the mission would continue consultations on the matter with the Russian side. The format and timetable of its consultations with Kiev have not yet been disclosed.