Rousseff says Brazil and US are strategic partners
President Dilma Rousseff has again expressed her disapproval of the US spying practices but said that Brazil and the United States are major strategic partners and that it “did not mean Brazil's government have broken their ties with the Obama administration.” The statement was made in an interview to journalist Christiane Amanpour on CNN network Thursday (July 10).
The president does not believe the responsibility for spying on citizens, companies, and Brazilian and other international authorities – including herself – which was revealed last year is the responsibility of Obama's administration. In her opinion, it is part of a process that has been taking place since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“We wanted two things from them [Obama's administration]: we wanted a guarantee that it [spying practices] would be discontinued and it would not happen again and thus of course someone had to be held accountable, someone would have to come before us and tell us it would not happen again,” the president said. She said that at that point when talking to Obama about the issue, the US government was still working out the issue of spying and was unable to provide an answer. But she said she believes by now “they have made quite a few steps.”
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Rousseff says Brazil and US are strategic partners
