Brazil committed to peace and non-interference

Islamabad: Brazilian Ambassador Claudio Lins has said that Brazil is a peaceful country and does not meddle in internal affairs of other countries.

Mr Lins was addressing a Roundtable on ‘Brazil’s role in South Asian region’ organised by Institute of Regional Studies, Sri Lankan Ambassador Noordeen Mohamed Shahied also attended.

Mr Lins said that Brazilian capital is like Islamabad that was built in 1960s and Brazil is a tolerant multicultural country. He said Asia is much easier to reach out for his country. We have no ambition to be a fortress or to be a big country even in our continent, save to talk of any other region. He said we want only peaceful relations and Brazil was the first to recognise Pakistan in South American continent. He said Brasilia had issues with Venezuela and Argentina but later solved.

He said we have trade relations with Southeast Asian countries, 4th in the world. He said ASEAN is 5th economy in the world. Our 40 per cent exports are agriculture. He focused more on Southeast region in his talk.

He said India is a major trade partner with his country. He said we treat Asia as a whole but I deeply honour South Asia also. He appreciated the presence of Sri Lankan envoy in the gathering. He said tourists from his country also visit the island republic. He said much can still be done to improve the relations. He said his country is a member of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) a group which has grown in the world in economy, agriculture, culture, security, technology, innovation and finances. He lauded the role of Asian Developing Bank in which each BRICS country contributed $2 billion to help extra-BRICS countries also. He said Contingent Reserve Arrangement established under BRICS helps needy countries like IMF.

Dr Rukhsana Qamber, President, IRS, highlighted trade and cultural relations between the countries and hoped the two countries to deepen their trade relations.

In question-answer session, Ambassador Lins said that facing Climate Change is a big challenge for his country which is facing terrible floods and droughts. There are powerful business and environmentalist lobbies. To a question on could the way Brazil and Argentina resolved their disputes and nuclear arms race through dialogue be applied on South Asian region, the guest speaker politely declined to give his comments.

He vehemently denied a comment from a participant that Brazil at any stage may assume a dominant role in South America saying we are committed to peace and no so such question will ever arise.