Obama Seeks Greater Cooperation with Brazil
U.S. President Barack Obama will tomorrow, Monday at the White House to its counterpart in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, energy and education, with disagreements over Iran and Cuba as a backdrop background.
Obama, who visited Brazil in March 2011, and Rousseff, who arrives in Washington today on his first official visit to the U.S. president will talk about how to continue working “to grow trade links, economic, education and innovation among two countries “, said on Friday the White House.
The American Presidency text indicates that the two leaders also draw to analyze the “progress” in the energy sector dialogues, economics and finance in place last year during Obama’s visit to Brazil.
Brazil, currently the sixth largest economy, was until last year the U.S. largest trading partner China but is now the main destination of exports from the South American country.
So Obama and Rousseff want to revive the U.S. bilateral trade and very interested also benefit the energy potential of Brazil, at a time when the rising gasoline prices worries the Americans.
But beyond the primarily economic nature of the visit of Rousseff, his presence in Washington can be an opportunity for Obama to ask Brazil “support sanctions on Iran deeper” over its nuclear program, according to a report by the independent Center Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Obama believes that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union (EU) on Iran over its nuclear program are working, while, but Rousseff recently questioned its effectiveness.
The other case in which the differences between Obama and Rousseff are evident is the participation of Cuba in the Summit of the Americas, to which both leaders attend next weekend in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia).
Brazilian official sources told that Rousseff Obama will manifest his “conviction”, shared with most Latin American countries, the Cartagena should be “the last” American summit “without Cuba.”
Obama will have to deal in Cartagena with the debate on the presence of Cuba in the next Summit of the Americas, after failure to reach a consensus to invite the country to which organizes Colombia.
The only government that has openly declared their refusal to invite Cuba to Cartagena United States, which believes that the Caribbean country does not meet the democratic requirement that participants in the Summit of the Americas established in 2001.
Also in Cartagena will discuss the fight against drugs in the continent with many countries are saying you have to change strategy and the proposal of Guatemala in favor of legalizing drugs as a solution.
In this debate have a crucial role both the U.S. and Brazil, which are the two largest consumers of cocaine in the continent, as recalled this week Paulo Sotero, the Woodrow Wilson Center for Studies in a forum organized by the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.
United States “needs a special relationship” with Brazil and Rousseff more pragmatic in many respects than its predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wants to “facts” on this visit to the U.S., especially in working in education, said in the same Forum Joao Augusto de Castro Neves, an expert on Latin America.
Obama’s visit to Brazil in 2011 helped create a “new environment” so that both can now build a bilateral relationship “that has always been strong,” said Sotero.
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