China, Russia call for stability in divided Brazil
May 14, 2016, 4:35 am

People protest against the suspension of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s president, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 12, 2016 [Xinhua]

“We are closely watching the development of the situation in Brazil,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news briefing in Beijing.

“We hope all sides concerned in Brazil can appropriately handle the current situation and maintain the country’s political stability as well as social and economic development,” he said.

“As China and Brazil are all-round strategic partners, we attach great importance to developing ties with Brazil,” Lu said, adding that he believed that the friendship and reciprocal cooperation between the two nations will continue to move forward.

The political crisis has deeply divided the South American nation.

Russia is also closely following “developments in Brazil”, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

“Developments in Brazil are an internal affair; these processes must be resolved in strict compliance with their Constitution. Russia wants to see a stable, democratic, vibrant Brazil playing an important role in international affairs,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharov said at a press briefing in Moscow.

Brazil’s interim president, Michel Temer, has called for “dialogue” following the rancour and bitter political divide among Brazil’s leadership and the people during the ouster of Rousseff.

Temer himself is charged with corruption in the probe into the kickback and bribery scandal at the state oil giant Petrobras.

Meanwhile, Rousseff warned that the impeachment drive threatened key government welfare programs and recently-discovered deep-sea oil deposits.

The legislature’s decision to put her on trial, effectively preventing her from governing for what could be the next six months, targets more than the presidential office, Rousseff said in a televised speech to the nation on Friday.

“I want to address the entire population to say that the coup is not just aimed at ousting me,” Rousseff said from the presidential headquarters of Planalto in the capital of Brasilia.

“By ousting me, they want to prevent the implementation of the (national) program that was elected by a majority of Brazilians,” said Rousseff, who was re-elected to a second term in 2014.

The new Temer government is expected to weaken stringent labour and pension laws and push ahead full steam with privatisation.

“What is at stake is respect for the independent will of the Brazilian people and the Constitution, and for the achievements of the past 13 years” under the leadership of the Workers’ Party, said Rousseff, flanked by her cabinet and political allies on Friday.

“What is at stake is Brazil’s great discovery, the pre-salt (oil deposits); what is at stake is the future of Brazil,” she added.

The Workers’ Party spearheaded landmark social programs that were recognized by the United Nations and other international agencies as exemplary.

According to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), in five years, Brazil received 455 delegations from 107 countries to share experiences in fighting hunger.

Following a special Senate session that began early Wednesday and lasted nearly 22 hours, lawmakers voted to try Rousseff for inflating fiscal accounts in the lead-up to presidential elections that saw her reelected to a second term.

Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing, and vowed to fight to complete her term.

Vice President Michel Temer, who was made acting president Thursday, unveiled a new cabinet and is expected to announce spending cuts and pro-business measures to revert an economic slowdown.

TBP and Agencies