Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced in Brazilian capital Brasília their plan to strengthen diplomatic relations between Brazil and Japan.
“We’ve reiterated our determination to increase and diversify bilateral trade, which has surpassed US$ 15 billion, especially on the Brazilian side of exports, still much concentrated on basic products”, said Brazil’s head of state.
Abe pointed out that Brazil is home to the world’s largest Japanese community outside Japan and highlighted that the country is “a key power” in the Japan-Latin America relations. Diplomatic ties between the two nations will be celebrating their 120th anniversary in 2015.
In the prime minister’s view, the Brazilian market is filled with great investment opportunities, and Japanese companies see it with high expectations. He also underlined that both countries endorse principles like democracy and the preservation of the environment, and also a reform in the UN Security Council.
Rousseff declared that she appealed to his guest to lift the ban on Brazil’s thermally processed beef and thanked him for the opening of the Japanese market to Brazilian pork in 2013.
Rousseff and Abe acknowledged the increasing importance of cyber security on the global agenda and the role of the UN in the international conflict resolution.
After the meeting, a number of treaties were signed by representatives from the governments as well as enterprises and banks from the two nations. The authorities also expressed through official letters their commitment to such matters as sustainability, the environment, natural disasters, oceanography, and health care.
The Brazilian Development Bank and the Bank of Japan also signed a memorandum of understanding in an effort to encourage Japanese small- and medium-sized businesses to invest in the Latin American giant and identify common fields of interest.
In the business sphere, an agreement was reached by Petrobras, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, and Mizuho Bank for loans and insurance in behalf of a project for the construction of an oil rig and eight hulls for floating oil platforms. The Federal University of Pernambuco, in turn, along with IHI Corporation, signed a memorandum of cooperation in the naval engineering field.
As for the private sector, Amaggi, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation signed a loan deal and a supplementary agreement for farming projects in the production of soy, corn and other grains, amounting up to $200 million.
Japan Oil Corporation and Brazil’s Vale also agreed to cooperate in mining undertakings and carry out a project in the fields of coal mining and mining technology in Mozambique. In a joint move, the Bank of Japan and Vale also signed a memorandum with the purpose of providing funds for several other iron ore and coal projects.
