Dilma travels to the United States for meeting with Obama

President Dilma Rousseff traveled to Washington yesterday morning, Sunday, April 8. She will meet with president Barack Obama for discussions on the international economic crisis, the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development (in June in Rio de Janeiro) and the new student exchange program, Science Without Borders (“Ciência sem Fronteiras”).

Today, Monday, April 9, Dilma will go to the White House for talks and lunch with the American president. A joint news conference is scheduled after the meeting.

In the afternoon, the two presidents will take part in the closing ceremony of a meeting of business executives from both countries. Dilma will also close a Brazil – United States Business Seminar: Partnership for the 21st Century. After that, she will meet American business leaders.

Brazil and the United States will sign at least ten bilateral cooperation agreements in the areas of science, technology, energy and culture. It is also possible that the Obama administration will make it easier for Brazilians to obtain US visas. Brazil is now in sixth place in number of visitors to the US, behind Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany (the US is the second most visited country by Brazilians, behind Argentina).

Dilma and Obama will discuss the situation in Syria and the forthcoming Summit of the Americas scheduled for this month in Colombia where there is controversy over the absence of Cuba with Chaves of Venezuela and Morales of Bolivia threatening to boycott the summit. Brazil has said its official position is that this should be the last summit without Cuba.

On Tuesday, April 10, Dilma will visit Harvard University and MIT as part of the groundwork for the ambitious government program (”Ciência sem Fronteiras”) that aims to send 100,000 Brazilians to study in the world’s best universities between now and 2014.

The tone of this trip, according to Brazilian authorities, is balance – a relationship where differences do not interfere with partnerships and agreements. There already exist some 24 so-called bilateral mechanisms (or agreements) between Brazil and the United States. One of the new ones that will be signed today is a partnership between the Brazilian Institute of Museums and the Smithsonian Institute for training of professionals.

Dilma Rousseff will insist on the presence of Barack Obama at the Rio+20 conference in June. It is expected that 100 heads of state and government will attend the event.