The Minister of Foreign Relations, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, will carry out working visit to Washington, on February 24 and 25, opportunity in which he will maintain meetings with the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the Counselor of National Security, Thomas E. Donilon, and the Secretary of the Treasure, Timothy F. Geithner.

He will also use the visit to meet with the President of the World Bank, Robert B. Zoellick.

According to the Itamaraty, the travel is registered in the context of the preparations to the visit that president Barack Obama will carry out to Brazil, on March 19 and 20.

The dialog with the North American authorities comprises several questions of bilateral interest, like commerce, investments, energy, defense, science and technology, innovation, space cooperation, education, culture, combat to the racial and gender discrimination and consular subjects, besides subjects of the regional and global agendas, with highlights for the situation in Haiti and in the Middle East, OAS, Human Rights and Social Themes, Change of the Climate and Sustainable Development, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation and Reform of the Institutions of Global Government.

The Brazilian government believes that the meeting between Obama and Dilma may mark a new period in the bilateral relations, one of the priorities of the Brazilian president.

The United States are the greatest foreign investor in Brazil, the second greatest importer of Brazilian products and the second greatest commercial partner of the country, with flow of more than US$ 46 billions in 2010.

President Dilma Rousseff wants to enlarge this partnership and to deepen the bilateral relations for other themes, inclusive of the social agenda.

Between 2009 and 2010, the Brazilian exports to the United States registered increase of 26.21 %, passing from US$ 15.6 billions to US$ 19.3 billions. Brazil, in turn, is the eighth destination of the exports of the USA.

Dilma wants still to negotiate the entry of the Brazilian ethanol in the North American market and dreams about the support of Barack Obama to the entry of Brazil in the U.N. Security Council.

Analysis of the News

Marcelo Rech

President Dilma Rousseff doesn´t say it publicly, but she evaluates that her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, committed a mistake when he looked down upon the relations with the United States.

Willing to remake these relations, Dilma sent some messages to Washington: she criticized the abstentions of Brazil in the resolutions that were condemning the violations of human rights in Iran and demanded democratic opening in Cuba.

For the United States, the signs are positive.

The president also evaluated well in the time of defining her chancellor and opted for Antonio Patriota, former ambassador in the United States, where he built a strong and confident relation with the current North American ambassador in Brasilia, Thomas Shannon.

At that time, Shannon was responsible for the North American diplomacy for the Latin America in the Department of State.

The meeting that Dilma and Obama will have in Brasilia won´t be conclusive.

The interest themes are too many and most of them will be ripened along the year so that, in September, they can be re-evaluated in Washington, when Dilma will see the colleague again, in the White House.

Obama wants to sell the fighter F-18 and Dilma wants the ethanol without taxes in the North American market. Obama wants Brazil condemning violations of human rights in Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Dilma wants more dialog of Washington with the Latin America.

The two countries share values and ideals.

If the ideological weight is set aside, they can advance in a concrete and lasting way.

Lula preferred to do mockery with the North American economical crisis. He didn´t gain anything with that and he still saw his personal prestige falling down.

Dilma Rousseff wants to build an eye to eye relation.