Friday, January 28, 2011

U.S. and Brazil initiated a new approach

The announcement of the upcoming visit to Brazil of U.S. President Barack Obama in late March, marks the beginning of a new stage in relations between the White House and the Planalto Palace. The landing of President Dilma Rousseff, his public condemnation of the violation of human rights in Iran and the twist in the bidding for a multi-million purchase of fighter jets to the Brazilian Air Force has cleared the way for a rapprochement between two countries so far maintained a cordial diplomatic relations, but also expressive differences on various issues on the international agenda.

Obama, who came to Brazil accompanied by a delegation composed of ministers and businessmen, said in his State of the Union aims to "foster new partnerships for progress in the Americas." Rousseff team had planned a visit to the White House on the same dates, but the sudden announcement of Obama has caused the postponement of the Brazilian Mission to the second half of this year.

In the Brasilia Government concealed no satisfaction at the gesture of the U.S. president during his first two years at the Executive is not considered a priority visit Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Everything indicates that the rudder strokes shy of the new Brazilian government led to renewed interest in Washington.

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, attended the inauguration of Rousseff in Brasilia, and is now Obama who travels to the Brazilian capital to strengthen ties with which surely will be his main interlocutor in South America. Rousseff itself interprets the encounter with Obama as the inauguration of a new stage in bilateral relations between Brasilia and Washington.

Brazilian diplomatic sources insist that Brazil and the U.S. maintain a smooth relationship and "mature" for decades, but not hide the fact that Brazil defended positions at the UN on the futility of imposing sanctions on Iran for developing its nuclear program, collision with the opinion of the U.S.

and the bulk of its European allies undermined the harmony between the two powers. Both Lula and Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, always avoided explicit condemnation of the repeated human rights violations in Iran and defended Tehran's right to continue its nuclear program, provided they do not have a military purpose.

In his only implicit criticism of the situation in the country of the ayatollahs, Lula came to provide refuge in Brazil Sakineh Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery, but shied away from controversy. Rousseff, however, has been quick to express their total disagreement with the Brazilian abstention in UN vote condemning the stoning of Ashtiani.

"The president's commitment to defending human rights is absolute, and this also includes Iran," high trust government sources this newspaper. In a move that many analysts interpreted as a nod to Washington, Rousseff has also reviewed the current contract to equip the Brazilian Air Force for 36 new generation fighters.

Competed in this business, valued between 4,000 and 7,000 million dollars, the French Dassault with its Rafale fighter, the Swedish SAAB Gripen the model and Boeing, the F-18 Super Hornet. Lula, who held an extraordinary relationship with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, clearly bent gala supply, although their high cost made it the least competitive.

Rousseff, which considers the Rafale too expensive and does not maintain any personal relationship with the French president, has decided to postpone the decision a few months and open a new period of analysis of the various proposals. "No one will doubt that Obama is, among other things, to defend their F-18", say the sources.

U.S. is also interested in strengthening cooperation with Brazil in the field of renewable energies such as ethanol. The findings permanent high-quality oil in the pre-salt, the vast underwater oil field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are also receiving increasing interest from Washington, increasingly concerned about its energy dependence Hugo Chávez's Venezuela.

Brazilian diplomats said, the two presidents will also examine the implementation of coordinated actions in countries with serious development problems, such as Haiti. "My forecast is that the visit will take place on March 13, when met exactly 50 years since President John F. Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress in Latin America" adventure David Fleischer, a professor of political science at the University Brasilia.

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