São Paulo – Brazil will have new ambassadors in the Arab countries this year. The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has submitted to the Federal Senate, on February 27th, the names of future ambassadors to Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. Officials to other countries have also been appointed, according to a note issued by the Presidency on the Federal Official Gazette on February 28th.
According to the Ministry of External Relations, the Brazilian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, João de Mendonça Lima Neto, is leaving his post in Abu Dhabi. To replace him, the president has appointed Paulo Cesar Meira de Vasconcellos, who had been serving in Thailand for three years.
The new Brazilian ambassador in Sudan will be José Mauro da Fonseca Costa Couto, currently serving as a special advisor to the Ministry of National Integration, in Brasília. In Khartoum, Couto will replace Antônio Carlos do Nascimento Pedro, who will accumulate duties as the Brazilian ambassador to Kuwait and Bahrain.
The appointment of Couto for Sudan and Vasconcellos to the Emirates is pending approval from the Senate’s Foreign Relations Commission, which will interview them before deciding on approving their new positions.
Similarly, the future Brazilian ambassador to Slovenia will be questioned in Congress, as will the newly appointed ambassadors to Burkina Faso, Thailand (which also represents Brazil in Laos and Cambodia) and in New Zealand (which represents Brazil in Tonga).
Nascimento Pedro was approved by the Senate in November and has been cleared by the Kuwaiti government to work in the country. According to the Foreign Ministry, Pedro will take office in the next few months. Neto, who had been serving in Abu Dhabi since April 2012, should return to Brazil.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
