In Moscow, Bolsonaro says talk with Putin was “fruitful”
In a joint statement to the press released in Moscow today (Feb. 16), Presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Vladimir Putin expressed their willingness to maintain active dialog—especially in the fields of defense, technology, and energy.
After talks that lasted nearly two hours, Bolsonaro said the meeting was “fruitful and of great interest to both our countries.” The two leaders also mentioned the Wednesday meeting between the foreign and defense ministers of both nations.
President Bolsonaro is in Russia at Putin’s invitation. The assembly took place at the Kremlin palace, seat of the Russian government.
The Brazilian leader opened his address expressing gratitude for Putin’s words of solidarity with the families affected by the tragedy in Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“We have intense collaboration at the main international institutions, like the Brics, the G-20, and the UN, where we advocate for the sovereignty of states and respect for international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” he added.
Bolsonaro went on to say that “we offer solidarity to all countries seeking and working for peace.”
The Brazilian president also noted that Brazil is an agribusiness powerhouse with great interest in the trade of fertilizers with Russia.
“In the energy arena, we have major opportunities to expand business in the extraction of gas, oil, and its by-products,” the president stated, in addition to showing interest in strengthening ties in deep-water exploration and hydrogen.
“We prioritized efforts to keep the technological alliance between Brazil and Russia dynamic, and I suggested we work together in such state-of-the-art fields as nanotechnology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, information technology and communications, and health research,” Bolsonaro declared.
Global agenda
In his address, Putin said that “as we exchanged opinions about topics on the global and regional agenda, we have found that the stances of our countries on a number of subjects are either close or the same. We have kept dialog active between our ministries of Foreign Relations and Defense. In this connection, the heads of these ministries held their first meeting in the 2+2 format today. Our countries advocate the creation of a multi-polar world, founded on international law and the instrumental, coordinating role of the United Nations.” The Russian president also said the two nations will continue forging partnerships under Brics.
The ministers of Foreign Relations Carlos França and Defense Braga Netto today (16) attended a meeting with their Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoygu in Moscow. The meeting format is dubbed 2+2 as the assembly is formed by four ministers, two representing each nation.
