São Paulo – The new Foreign minister of Brazil, Antonio Patriota, was inaugurated in January and his mission is to proceed with the generation of closer ties between Brazil and the Arab world. Diversifying partnerships was one of the requests by president Dilma Rousseff to the Foreign Office. And the Foreign minister has already started working on that. He has scheduled meetings with authorities in Palestine and Qatar and also plans closer ties with the Muslim world, through the Islamic Conference Organisation. On Monday (21), Patriota met with board members at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, among them president Salim Taufic Schahin, Foreign Relations vice president Helmi Nasr, secretary general Michel Alaby and Foreign Relations advisor Alberto Paiva. Read below the main stretches of the interview granted to ANBA.
ANBA – What guidelines has the Foreign Office received from president Dilma Rousseff regarding relations with the Arab nations? Should the effort for generation of closer ties with the Arab nations, which began in the term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, continue?
Antonio Patriota – Undoubtedly. The president asked me to consolidate these efforts for diversification of partnerships, which was one of the tonics of Lula’s foreign policy. She stated her interest in participating in the Aspa Summit (the Summit of South American-Arab Countries), which was scheduled to take place in Lima (Peru), on February 16th. Due to events in the Arab world, it has been postponed. But the fact that she stated, early into her term in office, in January, that she would participate (in the Aspa), shows her engagement with this mechanism. The Aspa is an innovative mechanism, which has engaged two regions in a positive agenda of cooperation, trade, investment, mutual recognition, appreciation of the contribution of the Arab world to our culture, our identity and also to generate, among the population, those in the civil society in the Arab countries, interest in South America, a region of opportunities, of economic growth, social inclusion, and also generation of closer ties with a part of the world that is often associated to a negative agenda. The interest in the Aspa associates the Arab world to a highly positive agenda.
I was very happy to be able to inaugurate the Islamic Art exhibition in Rio de Janeiro (Islam, from October to December 2010), which would not have been possible without these closer ties that developed in the scope of the Aspa. And it was a great honour, today, to receive an Arabic-Portuguese dictionary by professor Nasr. (the dictionary authored by Helmi Nasr, from the Arab Brazilian Chamber).
The Lula government developed the first work for generation of closer ties with the Arabs. Are we are now going to enter a new phase of relations with the region?
The truth is that, even prior to Lula’s term in office, the Arab world has always been important to Brazil. It had to be, due to the large number of Arabs, Lebanese and Syrians, who are members of our population, even here in São Paulo, where it is impossible to cross a street without bumping into a descendant. But the Lula government did contribute to intensification of ties and to use of these contacts. President Lula was, incidentally, the first Brazilian president to address the League of Arab States, in Cairo. We then became observers of the Arab League. Even now, when the Arab world is living a moment of turmoil, social and political effervescence, with movements that reveal aspiration for greater democracy, for more representative governments, I believe that we have to struggle for the contact between the civil societies of South America, Brazil and the Arab world to be maintained, develop and become deeper.
It is also with great satisfaction that I currently see that it is easier to travel to the Arab world. There are direct flights between São Paulo and the United Arab Emirates, São Paulo and Qatar. Turkey is not in the Arab world, but is also a bridge to the Islamic world and there is a direct flight to Istanbul too. I myself should travel to Qatar during carnival. I am going to travel to the East, China and India, and on my way back, as I have a connection in Qatar, I am going to make use of the opportunity to meet authorities in the country, which is becoming very influential.
Will this trip to Qatar be your first visit to an Arab country as a cabinet minister?
Due to the voting session in the United Nations (UN) Security Council last week, regarding Israeli settlements, I spoke to the Palestinian Foreign minister and I should meet him in Grenada, in the Caribbean, where the next Caricom summit (Caribbean Community Summit –from February 25th to 26th) should take place. He will attend as a guest, and I will too. We will have a bilateral meeting.
And are there already other activities forecasted, throughout the year, between the government of Brazil and the Arab nations?
Undoubtedly. And we hope that the Aspa may be scheduled for the coming months…
Has it not been scheduled for April?
It is a tentative date. It may be in April, or a little later. I would like to travel to the region still in the first half. We are in the planning phase, but I have already sent our Middle East director, minister Carlos Ceglia, there. He has just visited Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia. In fact we are interested in closer ties with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and minister Carlos Ceglia made contact there.
Is there any special reason for these ties?
It is a group of over 50 countries that ranges from Indonesia to Morocco. It is a very important part of the international community that we want to know better, whose aspirations we want to understand, whose dynamics we want to know and with whom we want to contribute in some way. There are projects for cooperation that are shown through the OIC, an organisation which has very effective representation in the United Nations, for example, in New York, and in other multilateral organisations. The agenda includes diversification of partnerships, international diversification in all areas. Brazil, in truth, has more Muslims than some of the countries that are members of the OIC, like Guyana and Surinam.
Minister, how about the trade agreement between the Mercosur and the Arab nations? The Mercosur has signed a trade agreement with Egypt, a framework agreement to begin negotiations with Palestine, Syria (Minister:there is interest with Jordan too), the agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is still pending…
The agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is now on hold. But the last Mercosur summit, in Foz do Iguaçu, included a delegation from the United Arab Emirates. The region is greatly interested in coming closer to the Mercosur. Once again Turkey, slightly different, also sent an advisor of the prime minister; also present were the minister of Commerce and Trade of Syria (Lamia Assi), the minister of Commerce of Palestine (Hassan Abu Lidbeh), the United Arab Emirates (Foreign Business minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan). So, we will continue working.
Should the agreement with the Gulf materialise?
The agreement with the Gulf is being re-analysed, which does not hinder the growth of trade. In fact, trade with the Arab world as a whole has been growing, over 300% during Lula’s term in office, in terms of Brazilian exports. It is a region with great potential for greater exports, especially agricultural.
And how about international forums like the United Nations, G20, are there sectors in which Brazil should work together to join forces with the Arab countries?
Our relations with different regions of the world are multifaceted. Of course, there is the economic interest and political dialogue. The Arab world is very diverse and broad. Interests, then, are varied. But, as Brazil, for example, is in the Security Council of the United Nations, even presiding the council in February, it is very important for the nation to maintain high-level political dialogue with the countries of the region to examine, for example, questions like Israel-Palestine. Now there has also been a referendum in Sudan, which is a member of the Arab world, which took place in a reasonably peaceful and serene manner, which we encourage.
Should Brazil continue trying to mediate a peace agreement in the region or was that a part played by president Lula?
I believe that Brazil may, together with other countries, make a contribution. Being a mediator depends on being called, you cannot proclaim yourself a mediator. But, for example, there are interesting circumstances, currently in the Security Council, which include Brazil, India and South Africa, as non-permanent members. There are three countries which have good relations with the Arab world and with Israel. There is therefore interest in operating as a support group for peace efforts between Israel and Palestine, as was the case in the Annapolis Conference, which represented positive development, in our point of view, as it included a greater number of countries in the discussion of the Israel-Palestine matter. And Brazil, India and South Africa were present.
*Translated by Mark Ament
