President Dilma Rousseff spoke on Saturday (May 25) in the name of Latin America during a ceremony commemorating 50 years of the African Union. Dilma considered the invitation to speak at the Golden Jubilee of the organization, which represents 54 African States an honor. “I think that the invitation reflects the high esteem in which Brazil is held and the recognition of the importance that Brazil attributes to Africa,” she said. In her speech, the President said that Brazil sees the African continent as a brother and close neighbor. On the eve of the event, she had said that Brazil is looking for more than trade relations with the continent. “Brazil does not merely want to establish commercial and trade relations, invest, and sell to the countries of Africa, but wants to establish cooperation at the South-South level as well. And what is South-South level cooperation? It is a form of cooperation that is not oppressive, but is rather based on mutual advantage and shared values.”
Debt renegotiation
Dilma’s agenda in Africa was filled with bilateral meetings and conversations with journalists. The president announced that Brazil would forgive or renegotiate the debts of 12 African countries. It is hoped that this position will unlock commercial and trade relations with countries that contracted debts with Brazil principally in the 1970s and 1980s. The President believes this action will benefit to both sides, since the government will now be able to finance Brazilian companies in African countries and promote commercial relationships that involve greater value added.
Deep and long term affinities
In her speech to the African Union, Dilma said that “Brazil views the African Continent as a brother and close neighbor, we have similarities and profound affinities. More than half of the almost 200 million Brazilians identify themselves as Afro-Brazilian descendants, and this is regarded as one of the richest veins that shapes the Brazilian nation.”
Over the last 10 years, commercial relations between Brazil and Africa have increased on the order of five times, and with the inauguration of new diplomatic representative offices, Brazil is now the Latin American country with the most number of embassies in Africa, 37 and all. In addition, Brazil is already involved in technical cooperation projects in 40 countries on the continent.
“The Brazilian government has assumed the essential leadership in this process and today we take great pride in seeing that more and more our relationship with the African continent is based on the genuine interests of Brazilian civil society and the private sector. Our relationship is long-term and strategic,” affirmed the President?.
Autonomy
The advances of the African Union, like Unasul (the Union of South American Nations) has taught a valuable lesson: that we are the ones who must resolve the problems in our regions, respecting, always, the differences that occasionally arise between us,” she said.
Dilma concluded by saying that: “now is the time for Africa to write its own history, and Brazil wants to share in this new moment.”
Lula
On Wednesday, (May 22) in Brasilia, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated in a seminar on the relations between Brazil and Africa (click here for more information). Lula is recognized as a central figure in the process of re-approximation between Brazil and Africa and chose the collaboration with the African continent is one of the goals of the Institute that carries his name. About the visit by President Dilma to Addis Ababa, he said: “Dilma went to London, visited New York, and in October will go to Washington, but I am certain that she will return from Addis Ababa more African than I. When she returns from Ethiopia, Brazil will have not one, but two presidents that are believers in Africa.”
A month from now, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will travel to Ethiopia. On June 30 and July 1, the headquarters of the African Union will hold a high-level meeting on “New Unified approaches to End Hunger in Africa”, which is being organized by the AU, the FAO and the Lula Institute.
Read more at:? União Africana, FAO e Instituto Lula somam esforços para combater a fome na África
