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UK Parliament praises Brazil, but regrets its ‘hardening’ policy towards Falklands
Committee Chair MP Ottaway, Brazil a country key to UK interests Britain’s House of Commons strongly supports a closer bilateral relationship with Brazil, which it describes as a democratic, well governed, responsible state but regrets the hardening position of Brazil towards the Falklands and the HMS Clyde incident.
World events should not distract the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from its efforts to promote a stronger bilateral relationship between the UK and Brazil says the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in a report published this week.
The rise of Brazil as a world power represents an opportunity for the UK, not a threat and the FCO is correct to identify Brazil's potential to be a “good news story” for the UK adds the report describing Brazil as a democratic, well-governed, responsible state, with much to contribute to the international community.
The UK has taken the correct preliminary steps to strengthen the bilateral relationship, underlines the Committee. “The UK's support for permanent Brazilian membership of the UN Security Council, as part of a wider UN reform is to be particularly welcomed. Brazil as a developing, democratic country can play a vital role in representing the “global South”. The Government must maintain its efforts in this area”.
As Brazil increasingly accepts the global leadership role that its growing economy will bring, it will play a key role in the promotion of UK national interests such as energy security, the trade in narcotics and the maintenance of the environment, while the commercial opportunity that Brazil represents is a vital plank of the Government’s ambition to increase trade overseas.
However “the turning away of a Royal Navy vessel is a serious matter. The committee regrets that Brazil felt the need to refuse docking permission to HMS Clyde in January this year, and further regrets a general hardening of Brazil's position towards the Falklands. The committee is pressing for answers from the FCO as to how this situation was allowed to develop”.
The Government is right to target the commercial opportunities that a stronger trading relationship with Brazil will bring. While measures have been put in place to increase trade, the target of doubling trade by 2015 is somewhat arbitrary. UKTI should continue to highlight the opportunity that Brazil brings to UK firms, particularly in the energy sector, and educate UK firms wishing to trade with Brazil on the difficulties inherent in the market.
“The FCO should continue to push for the completion of negotiations on the proposed EU-Mercosur Free-Trade Agreement”.
“The Government has taken the right steps to promote a stronger relationship between the UK and Brazil. This must represent the beginning of a long-term effort to strengthen the UK's relationship with a country that will be key to the UK's national interests in the coming years”, commented Committee Chair Richard Ottaway MP.
In a wide range of areas, from tackling climate change to increasing UK exports, the UK stands to benefit from the development of a stronger, more confident Brazil and if Brazil continues on its current path, its rise should be welcomed, added MP Ottaway.
Finally, “I urge the FCO to continue their efforts, despite the distraction of the 'Arab Spring' on the department's work, and build on the progress made so far. I look forward to monitoring this progress and the continued strengthening of the bilateral relationship throughout this Parliament.”
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Read all commentsThe people of the Falkland Islands also regrets a general hardening of Brazil's position towards the Falklands and are disappointed that a great country like Brazil can be brow-beaten into supporting a totally illegal claim and support Argentina in its illegal blockade of the peaceful Falklands.A sad day for Brazilians.We thought they were a free and democratic nation,not puppets to Argentina.
Oct 20th, 2011 - 09:44 am 0Brazil is a fast growing economy, along with China and Russia, and like both of those other countries it suffers from endemic corruption and an upper elite milking off a population barely scraping a living on subsistence wages.
Oct 20th, 2011 - 02:03 pm 0Treating workers as slave labour is not the stuff of success. It is only a matter of time before workers demand fair pay and equal rights, with the elites that drive their lives into the ground, so they can live in their fancy homes.
Russia - characterised by criminal mafias and government run corruption.
China - characterised by a corporate elite, protected by a defunct ideology used to perpetuate their grasp on power and subjugation of their workers.
Brazil - characterised by rich blond haired elites, lording it over the darker skinned masses, police corruption, state sponsored murder, oppression of the indigenous population, harsh prisons and low wages.
Great examples for the future! NOT!
Brazil is the regional power of South America and certainly does not have the best interests of its closest rival Argentina at heart.
“Brazil - characterised by rich blond haired elites, lording it over the darker skinned masses, police corruption, state sponsored murder, oppression of the indigenous population, harsh prisons and low wages.”
Oct 20th, 2011 - 02:25 pm 0- Brazil's “elites” aren't blond and the poor aren't overwhelmingly dark either. A third of Brazil's poor identify as white.
- Police corruption, how funny to hear that charge from a Brit. :)
- State-sponsored murder where?
- Oppression of the indigenous groups: again where? 15% of our territory have been marked as reserves for our Natives, who are barely 0.5% of the population. And considering the UK's treatment of the Chagossian, hearing the charge of oppression against Natives is very rich. Be careful what you say - you live in a glass house.
- Low wages: Wages are low, but this is a result of other political and economic factors: in part low productivity and in part the military regime's wage freezing policies which ate away a large part of the minimum wage's purchasing power. Be that as it may, minimum wages have grown over 70% throughout the last decade (an effort that has been announced as an attempt to restore wages) and this has been a key factor in reducing inequality. Among the largest economies in the world, Brazil is the only one that's been reducing inequality. Meanwhile UK real minimum wages remain frozen and inequality is climbing.
I know that it may be hurting you that we're not licking your boots and supporting you over an important neighbor and trade partner - but as a Brit you're in no position to lecture us about human rights. Get off of your high horse and lick some Iraqis' boots and ask for forgiveness. This is the best you can do for human rights without sounding hypocritical.
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