São Paulo – The Ministry of Foreign Relations will offer a course for African diplomats starting next Monday (12th) in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting, promoted by means of the Alexandre Gusmão Foundation (Funag), will be an opportunity to discuss matters of interest to Africa and Brazil and the establishing of closer ties between diplomats from the two regions, according to the ambassador Gilberto Vergne Saboia, president of the Funag.
The course will be attended by representatives of South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola. This is the second meeting promoted with a focus on African countries. The first one took place in 2010.
“Brazil maintains a special relationship with Africa. This type of cooperation makes sense, for we are present in Africa, not just from the diplomatic standpoint but from the commercial one as well, in technical cooperation for agriculture, healthcare and works,” says Saboia.
The meeting will feature talks by Brazilian and African diplomats. One of the speakers representing Brazil will be the undersecretary general of Politics III at the Foreign Ministry, Paulo Cordeiro, who will address Brazil-Africa political relations. A South Sudanese representative will also speak, recounting how the region became a country, after having been considered a useless territory by the British. A (North) Sudanese representative will give a talk on the history of the country. Other speakers will include diplomats from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa.
According to Saboia, this type of initiative should bring medium- and long-term advantages to Brazil, as it enables the participating diplomats to get to know the country better. In Rio, in addition to attending the talks, the diplomats will visit tourist spots such as museums, and organizations such as the oil company Petrobras, the mining company Vale and the National Development Bank (BNDES), among others. They should also go to Brasília to visit the Ministry of Foreign Relations headquarters.
”In all of these places, they will find something to add to their knowledge of Brazil,” says the ambassador. The course will continue until September 23rd.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
