|
The Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Amr Mussa, said on his speech April 5, at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarter, in São Paulo, Brazil, that in five years trade between Brazil and the Arab world will double.
Amr Mussa came to Brazil to discuss final details of the South American/Arab Countries Summit, to be held in Brasília, May 10 and 11, and followed by events in São Paulo, May 12-13.
"It is a summit that prioritizes common needs and interests, the opening of channels for investments and commerce, services, tourism, and culture," he said.
The Secretary General explained that "the Arab World does not want to go through a civilization war, nor through a cultural massacre." He praised Brazilian cultural tolerance and invited all present to a second summit in the Arab world.
Greater cooperation in the commercial, cultural, political, and scientific-technological spheres will be the main themes of the South America/Arab countries Summit to be held in Brasília next month.
The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, and the secretary-general of the League of Arab States, Ambassador Amr Mussa, met April 4 for another round of summit preparations and emphasized that relations between the two regions are growing increasingly intense.
According to Amorim, the value of trade between Brazil and the Arab countries grew 50% in 2004, from US$ 5.2 billion to US$ 8 billion.
This is the first time the two regions are meeting to discuss such a wide variety of themes. The Brazilian Chancellor classified the encounter as a "truly historical event."
Amorim recalled important moments in relations among developing countries, such as in the decade of the 1950's, when the political context marking meetings between African and Asian countries was very different from what it is now .
"The sense of the meetings then was quite different; it was to discuss their geopolitical posture towards the world, a world that was divided. But the world has changed. This meeting is mostly directed towards cooperation and dialogue between the two regions," he underscored.
Ambassador Mussa said that the conference is on behalf of two of the world's very important economic areas, which are are cultivating ties of friendship . He also affirmed that the Middle East question may crop up during May's summit meeting.
Indeed, both Mussa and Amorim declared that the joint communiqué that will be issued at the encounter of heads of state of the two regions will deal with two topics which are on the international docket: terrorism and the Middle East peace process.
Both Amorim and Mussa ruled out the possibility that May's summit could be interpreted as a political attack on Israel. "The conference is to approximate two groups, two large regions, two very important economies in the world," the Arab Ambassador remarked.
The Brazilian Chancellor recalled that the Arab countries are aware of Brazil's position regarding relations between Israel and Palestine. " Brazil maintains good relations with Israel.
And, regarding the Palestine issue, Brazil wants there to be a solution guaranteeing a Palestinian state that is economically viable and respectful of human dignity, in a context of regional peace for all states in the region," he said.
As for the position taken by both sides opposing the presence of observers at the May summit, rejecting a suggestion made by the United States, Amorim commented that the meeting is solely and exclusively to discuss cooperation between the two regions in various spheres.
"It is a meeting of two regions, which will discuss mutual cooperation. A great deal of what will go on will be public, so that whoever wants to can turn on the TV and watch," he explained.
Agência Brasil
 |
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.