President Ernest Koroma Seals Pact With Brazilian President

President Ernest Bai Koroma, in his continuing state visit to Brazil, has met with the host country’s President Lula da Silva, and both have already sealed a bilateral agreement on the basis of which relations would be strengthened. At the Foreign Affairs headquarters in Brasília yesterday 19 August 2009, the Sierra Leonean leader was received by his counterpart in official pomp with the Brazilian media in spectacular attendance.

The agreement, mutually endorsed by both Heads of State, was signed by the two countries’ Foreign Ministers, Zainab Bangura of Sierra Leone and Celso Amorim of Brazil. Among other things, the agreement calls for the establishment of diplomatic missions in countries, bilateral trade, technology transfer, and visa exempt for Sierra Leonean holders of diplomatic, service/official passports. Both Presidents hailed the agreement. President Lula said “it’s going to open the floodgates so that our relationship can flourish….Brazil is joining the international community to support Sierra Leone’s battle to overcome the legacy of a traumatic (civil) war.

In the peace building commission, we are struggling to strengthen the institutional capacity of Sierra Leone. Brazil’s experience in Haiti and in Guinea Bissau leaves no doubts that without economic and social development, there will not be lasting peace.” President Koroma said “We cannot have a better moment, as we find in President Lula a man committed to promoting this cooperation… As a government, we have outlined the possible areas where we expect to get support, like energy, infrastructure development, and agriculture… In the private sectors, we have started oil exploration and we want Brazil to help us become a leader in sea exploration, not only to assist in (oil) exploration, but also to help us put in place the infrastructure that we require to maximize the benefits from the potential that we have.

“As an immediate follow-up, Brazil is sending a high-powered delegation before the end of the year to specifically look at areas of possible intervention ranging from health to agriculture, information technology, fisheries and education. President Koroma also visited the Brazilian Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court to respectively hold separate discussions with Senate President Jose Sarvey, House Leader Michel Temer and Supreme Court President Gilmor Mendes, all of whom underlined the importance of formalizing the relationship between Sierra Leone and Brazil.

Later in the day, the President visited the headquarters of the world renowned agricultural centre, Embrapa, where discussions were held in relation to getting assistance in agricultural production. This morning, the President and entourage left Brasilia for, and arrived in, Rio de Janeiro where they visited the international medical headquarters of the Oswald Cruz Foundation which had already had preliminary visits to Sierra Leone with a view to intervening in the health sector.