Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, declared that the idea presented by the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales, respectively, to create an "axis of good" in opposition to Washington’s "axis of evil," was "obsolete." Amorim discarded Brazilian participation in the idea.
"I do not believe there is an axis of evil or an axis of good. That is a simplistic vision of reality. The whole idea of confrontation is out of date, it is something from the 1970s and has no place in a globalized world," said Amorim.
The Brazilian Minister made these remarks after participating in the closing ceremonies of a meeting with 60 Brazilian ambassadors who hold posts abroad.
Regarding the Brazilian interest in becoming a permanent member of the United Nations’ Security Council, Amorim stressed that he is going to do his best this year to advance the idea. "If we are able to define something this year, great. If we can achieve another kind of progress, it won’t be as good, but I think we are going in the right direction," he said.
Commenting on the negotiations in the Hong Kong’s ministerial meeting, the chancellor stated that there were important advances. "I think you need to have a deadline (in April) for eliminating export subsidies, this is of the utmost importance, because this was in the air," he emphasized.
To the ambassadors who are serving overseas, the Brazilian Foreign Minister stressed how important are the negotiations in the World Trade Organization as well as Latin America’s integration.
According to Amorim, these are priority matters to the foreign policy the Brazilian government has been adopting. "Today, Latin America is our main commercial partner, in a time when our exports to the European Union have also been growing".
Among the series of measures taken during Lula’s three years in government concerning foreign policy, Amorim said that he is betting in multilateral negotiations. "This doesn’t concern Brazil alone. I think this is everybody’s concern," he concluded.
ABr