Senior Brazilian and U.S. diplomats met on Monday to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to the Western Hemisphere.According to Brazil's presidential foreign affairs advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia, his meeting in Brasilia today with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela was meant to “clear the air” over disagreements and sensitive points between both countries. Garcia criticized the White House’s controversial deal to expand U.S. military presence in Colombia by claiming that it "is not a positive factor in the region". Garcia also defended the recent visit of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Brazil and asserted his country’s backing of Iran’s nuclear program solely under International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines. (Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that it was a "really bad idea" for Latin American states to engage with Iran).
Garcia also said that he and Valenzuela found common ground regarding the Honduran political crisis:
"We coincide in something: for the Brazilian and the U.S. governments the election is insufficient to normalize democracy," Garcia said, adding that they still had a "small difference" over the results of the election…Valenzuela’s trip to the Americas will continue with stops in the other Mercosur full member countries of Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
"We really agree on some of the fundamental aspects of our relationship, and we have a similar view of many of the issues in the hemisphere," Valenzuela said when asked about the differences with Brazil over Honduras.
Image- The Telegraph (The current presidents of Brazil and the U.S. met at the White House last March).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AFP, JTA, Reuters, Mercopress
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