Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff arrived in New York, Sunday, September 23. According to the tradition that Brazil opens the General Assembly she will speak at the opening ceremony of the 67th United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
The president is expected to demand a joint effort to contain the consequences of the international financial crisis that threatens efforts to expand social inclusion and reduce poverty worldwide.
Dilma will also report on advances made at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio + 20 that took place in June. In doing so, she will push for a stronger global effort in the direction of sustainable development calling on nations around the world to work on practical and objective goals such as those established at the Rio de Janeiro conference.
Dilma traveled with her daughter, Paula Rousseff Araújo, and ministers Antonio Patriota (Foreign Relations), Marco Aurélio Garcia (Special Secretariat for International Affairs), Aloizio Mercadante (Education), Fernando Pimentel (Development, Industry and Foreign Trade), Aguinaldo Ribeiro (Cities) and Helena Chagas (Social Communication). They will be in New York until September 26.
With regard to world politics, Dilma will reiterate the need to respect internal sovereignty and the democratic order, positions Brazil has defended consistently and remain pertinent to the situations in Syria and Paraguay. In Syria, Dilma will call for an end to violence, peace through dialogue and respect for human rights. She will express opposition to military intervention.
She will also once again support the Palestinian right to an independent state and call for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Dilma will point out that Latin American regional integration is directly related to democracy and for that reason area leaders were concerned about the legality of the removal of president Fernando Lugo of Paraguay in June.
Minister Antonio Patriota will have a parallel schedule of meetings, including the G4 (Brazil, Japan, India and Germany) and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), mainly dealing with discussions of expanding the UN Security Council.
The Brazilian president is planning to stay until next Thursday when she will have to compress a long list of meetings with foreign leaders and delegates.
A meeting with President Obama is not in the agenda since the US leader will only be staying two days in New York because he in the middle of the presidential campaign.
However President Rousseff will hold a meeting with the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, according to the Planalto press office.
On Wednesday the Brazilian president is scheduled to participate in a conference at the Council of Foreign Affairs, which brings together foreign policy experts and academics and publishes the respected magazine Foreign Affairs. However the event is closed to the media.
Other meetings scheduled include the leaders of Germany, Turkey, the Arab League and members of BRICS, Russia, India, China and South Africa, plus representatives from multilateral organizations.
The situation with Iran will also be on the table given a background of initiatives by the previous government of Lula da Silva, together with Turkey, to find a way out to the alleged nuclear arms development by Teheran.
Given the stalemate at the Security Council on the Syrian crisis, Ban Ki-moon has requested all those countries that could have an influence, to help stop the killings and fighting. Since Brazil has a numerous and influential Syrian (and Lebanese) community, it has been suggested Brasilia could have a role to play.
