October 25, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Brazil’s Minister of External Relations, today issued the following joint statement:
“We are pleased to report that we met for the inaugural Strategic Partnership Dialogue today. The Dialogue was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Dilma Rousseff during the Prime Minister’s official visit to Brazil in August 2011.
“The Dialogue has provided us with the opportunity to exchange views on our bilateral cooperation agenda, as well as on current international issues. We devoted special attention to peace and security issues in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran and the Middle East peace process, and sought to identify common interests and approaches. We also discussed multilateral issues, including the role of the United Nations in fostering international cooperation in such areas as humanitarian assistance, democracy and human rights, sustainable development and international security.
“We reaffirm the strong and vibrant relationship between Brazil and Canada and are pleased to take note of recent steps that have served to advance our relationship, such as the launch of the Canada-Brazil CEO Forum, our ongoing negotiations on a defence cooperation agreement and the developments in the context of the Canada-Brazil Framework Agreement for Cooperation on Science, Technology and Innovation.
“We note with great appreciation the enhanced bilateral cooperation on education. In this context, we are pleased to register Brazil’s efforts to expand educational opportunities by means of the Science Without Borders scholarship program and Canada’s offer to accept 12,000 Brazilian university and college students over the next four years under the program. Roughly 1,000 students, benefiting from it, have already arrived in Canada. This is in addition to the over 200 agreements that already exist between our educational institutions to facilitate two-way exchange of students, faculty and researchers.
“We are confident that new initiatives, such as the Canada-Brazil Energy Dialogue and our plans to initiate a space cooperation dialogue, as well as the decision to hold consultations on humanitarian assistance, will further promote the growth of strategic cooperation in a wide range of areas between Brazil and Canada.
“We concurred that high-level visits serve to deepen our connections and interaction, including the official visits to Brazil of Prime Minister Harper in August 2011; the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, in April 2012; and the anticipated visit to Canada of President Rousseff. We look forward to the continued deepening of our relationship and welcome increased partnerships between our two countries as, together, we face the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.”
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