|
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Monday, September 7, that Brazil has entered negotiations with France for the purchase of 36 combat aircrafts Rafale, from Dassault. An official release from the Planalto (the presidential office) said that negotiations include the transfer of French technology.
The announcement was made during the visit of French president Nicholas Sarkozy, following the signing of agreements involving US$ 12.5 billion for the purchase of four conventional submarines, one nuclear powered and 50 transport helicopters. All include the transfer of technology.
"Taking into account the amplitude of technological transfers proposed and guarantees offered by the French side, President Lula da Silva announced the decision of the Brazilian side to enter negotiations with GIA Rafale for the purchase of 36 combat aircraft," said the official Planalto release.
However the release is not clear as to whether Brazil has opted for the Rafale as the fighter chosen for the renewal of the Brazilian Air Force. Sweden's Saab and its Gripen and the US Boeing with the F-18 Super Hornet are also competing for the contract which initially was estimated in US$ 2.5 to US$ 3 billion.
President Sarkozy confirmed that France will purchase a dozen KC-390 transport aircrafts to be manufactured in Brazil and which will replace the ageing US built Hercules C-130.
"We wish to purchase Brazilian aircrafts; negotiations have begun," revealed Sarkozy during the press conference.
As to the Rafale combat aircrafts Lula said that the beginning of negotiations does not mean Brazil has discarded the other options: the Gripen or the F-18 Super Hornets. "For us the most important is access to technology and that is what we are negotiating with the French Defense ministry and the manufacturer", said Lula following talks with Sarkozy.
Lula insisted that Brazil's interest is having access to technology so as to develop the Brazilian aeronautical industry.
Sarkozy said France is not fearful of technology transfer to Brazil, "France is a reliable partner, efficient; sharing technology does not scare us." He added France wishes to jointly develop the air industry in Brazil, "a great industry, manufacture planes together and sell them together."
"The relationship between Brazil and France is not one of supplier and client, but of partners. We want to act together because we share the same values and a same vision on the big international goals," added Sarkozy.
The French president and a delegation of eight ministers and businessmen arrived on Sunday in Brazil for the cooperation defense agreements and political talks. Sarkozy was the guest of honor at the country's main military parade September 7, Brazilian Independence Day.
Brazilian officials are expected to announce the winner of the bid in October.
Mercopress
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.