Dilma on to Serious Business in Turkey after Emotional Bulgarian Visit

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov (2L) welcomes Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff (3L) in Veliko Tarnovo Thursday. Photo by BGNES

Both Brazil and Turkey are emerging as global powers and they need to boost their partnership to mutual advantage, stated Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in an interview ahead of her first visit to Turkey Friday.

Since late Tuesday, right after a visit to Brussels, Rousseff has been on an official trip to Bulgaria, where her father Pedro (Petar) Rousseff was born.

Dilma's Bulgarian visit is turning out to be quite emotional, with both she and Bulgarian citizens and politicians expressing deep affection.

In an extensive interview for Turkish paper Zaman however Rousseff has stated she sees a lot of parallels between the positions of Brazil and Turkey on the global stage, and that she intends to pursue the policy of approchement set out by her predecessor Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva.

"Turkey and Brazil occupy positions of growing importance in international affairs. We have established positions of preeminence in our respective regions, through democratic and inclusive models of growth," said the Brazilian president.

"Turkey?s "zero problem" policy with its neighbors can be translated, mutatis mutandi, into Brazil's vision of a fully integrated, peaceful and prosperous South America. Brazil has been a driving force in promoting bi-regional dialogues between South America, on the one hand, and Europe, Africa, Asia and the Arab world, on the other hand," added she.

Rousseff singled out foreign policy, an ongoing deep economic and trade collaboration, as well as a new mutual approach to a non-violent resolution of conflicts as the areas that the two emerging powers have the greatest potential to work in.

The Brazilian president pointed out not only to the number of strategic geopolitical common initiatives between the two countries, but also to the fact that trade between them is expected to exceed USD 2 B before the end of 2011.

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