MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil and Peru sign agreements to strengthen cooperation and energy integration

Presidents Lula da Silva and Alan Garcia

Brazil and Peru signed several accords which strengthened regional integration with particular emphasis on energy. The event followed a meeting between Presidents Lula da Silva and Alan Garcia met in Manaus, state of Amazon.

“It’s been one of our most productive and most intense meetings because we discussed very concrete issues and because we’re touching on problems to resolve and (taking measures to) immediately favour our peoples,” said Garcia at a joint press conference with Lula da Silva after their meeting.

The agreements cover areas of scientific and technical cooperation, territorial regulation and border integration, agricultural production, comprehensive management of water resources plus the transfer of Brazilian technology in agricultural and forestry systems to Peruvian border communities.

“We’re going to take secure and concrete steps on the road to energy integration, in the utilization of Peru’s natural gas resources, in the integration of people along our borders, in the use of our currencies (the Brazilian real and Peruvian sol), in trade and completing old dreams like the inter-ocean highways that join Peru with Brazil,” Garcia said.

The largest joint project in the energy sector is the Southern Peruvian Gas Pipeline, which authorities intend to build linking the regions of Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno, Moquegua and Tacna to take advantage of the enormous reserves of natural gas in Peru, calculated to total some 15 trillion cubic feet.

Trade between Brazil and Peru soared between 2003 and 2008 from 724 million to 3.3 billion US dollars.

Although bilateral trade dropped in 2009 because of the global recession, in the first quarter this year goods and services exchange reached 766 million USD.