Viewing cable 10BRASILIA45, BRAZIL: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH MRE SECRETARY-GENERAL PATRIOTA

Viewing cable 10BRASILIA45, BRAZIL: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH MRE
SECRETARY-GENERAL PATRIOTA

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Reference ID	Created	Released	Classification	Origin
10BRASILIA45	2010-02-09 10:10	2010-12-05 05:05	CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN	Embassy Brasilia

VZCZCXYZ0002
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBR #0045/01 0401047
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 091047Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0441
INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0012
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 000045 

SIPDIS 
NOFORN 
DEPARTMENT FOR S, D, P, SECC, OES, NEA, AND WHA 
NSC FOR FROMAN AND RESTREPO 
AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PASS TO AMCONSUL RECIFE 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/09 
TAGS: PREL SENV MASS HA IR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH MRE SECRETARY-GENERAL PATRIOTA 

CLASSIFIED BY: Thomas A. Shannon, Ambassador, State, Embassy Brasilia;

REASON:

1.4(B), (D) 

¶1. (SBU) Summary. After presenting his credentials to Brazilian 

President Lula(septel), Ambassador Shannon met for over an hour February

4 with Secretary-General(Deputy FM) Antonio Patriota, covering the work

ahead in Haiti, the status of Brazil's FX2 fighter purchase, climate

change negotiations, and Brazil's efforts regarding Iran and the Middle East.

End summary. 

¶2. (C) Patriota, who had requested the meeting with the Ambassador the

night before and had attended the Ambassador's credentialing ceremony as

acting foreign minister, congratulated the Ambassador on his new post and

was pleased to hear of the upcoming visits of Attorney General Holder,

Secretary Clinton, Secretary Locke, and NSC Deputy Michael Froman.

Patriota reviewed the outstanding bilateral items awaiting high-level

agreement, including the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) and gender,

climate, and trilateral cooperation MOUs put forward by the GOB.

He outlined President Lula's active travel 

schedule over the next few months, which would include trips to Cancun,

San Salvador, Havana, and Port au Prince the week of February 22; to Israel,

Palestine, and Jordan March 15-18; and to Iran May 16-17. Lula would also

be gathering African agriculture ministers shortly, with the goal of taking

a message to the G20 in May. Haiti: A Great Opportunity 

¶3. (C) Following up on President Lula's comments earlier that day (septel),

Patriota described the Haiti reconstruction effort as a "great opportunity"

for Brazil and the United States. Noting that President Lula had spent ten 

minutes discussing Haiti during his first Oval Office meeting with President

Obama, he said the phone calls between the two leaders had been helpful to

ensuring good communication and coordination. Patriota called President 

Obama's engagement on Haiti "necessary and important," adding that "if the

United States and Brazil lead, others will follow." It goes without saying,

he said, that the United States and Brazil should work closely on Haiti in 

the UNSC, adding that Brazil was in agreement that MINUSTAH should work under

its current mandate for now, and that new recommendations should be studied 

as they are put forward. 

¶4. (C) Patriota stressed that Haiti was receiving an enormous amount of 

attention from President Lula and a number of other senior GOB officials, 

noting Lula's planned February 25 visit. Patriota said he was pleased former 

President Clinton had been chosen by the UN to lead on reconstruction and 

thought it would be positive to have Chilean President Bachelet involved once 

she leaves office. Picking up on Lula's comment earlier in the day that we had

to find a way around the choice between a corrupt Haitian government and 

putting so much money into the hands of non-Haitian NGOs, Patriota said that 

Marcio Pochmann, president of the Economic and Management Research Institute

(IPEA), had recently done research on the effect of NGOs on development 

that might be useful in finding a new approach to Haiti reconstruction. FX2:

No Decision Made 

¶5. (C/NF) Patriota said that Lula had told the French Ambassador (who 

also had presented credentials) that no decision on the fighter purchase

had been made, but that Lula would do so "in the next few months," after

convening the National Security Council (a body that includes key ministers

and the presidents of both congressional chambers). The Ambassador stressed

that the decision to release all necessary technology to Brazil reflected

a paradigm shift for the United States; not only did it reflect confidence

in Boeing's product, but also confidence in Brazil. Climate Change: We Have

to Move Forward 

¶6. (C) Referring to President Lula's emphasis on the need for close

U.S.-Brazil coordination heading into the UNFCCC COP-16, Patriota said he

hoped SECC Todd Stern would be able to come to Brazil soon. He said Lula

was committed to the following through on the Copenhagen communiquC) and,

unlike other BASIC countries, would not backtrack. "We have to move forward,

" he said, suggesting that NSC Deputy Froman might be able to make time

for talks on climate change during his upcoming visit. Iran and the

Middle East: An Agenda of Peace 

¶7. (C) With regard to Brazil's engagement with Iran, Patriota said that,

above all, Brazil wants to "avoid a replay of Iraq." Destabilization

of Iran would be disastrous, he said, and as long as there is a 

possibility for diplomatic engagement, the international community

should try it. He said that Iranian FM Mottaki had sought out FM Amorim

in Geneva on January 29, saying that he had noted flexibility on the part

of the French and the United States. The Ambassador said Iran needed to 

be the subject of continuing dialogue between the United States and

Brazil to avoid misunderstanding and ensure coordination

of messages. The Ambassador urged the GOB to move very cautiously

regarding Iran. He said recent acts of repression, including the executions of

protesters, are a sign of things to come and raise questions about the

Iranian government's ability to do a deal with the international community.

"The distrust is great," Patriota said, "and we never know how sincere" the

Iranians are, but "we intend to continue to try" to reach a settlement.

Patriota noted that Lula had paid a political price internally for his 

engagement with Iran. He said criticism of Lula, especially by leaders of

Brazil's Jewish community, had stung Lula badly. However, Lula's consistent

message regarding the need to acknowledge the Holocaust had won over some of

the harshest critics of the visit of Iranian President Ahmadinejad,

including Claudio Luiz Lottenberg of the Albert Einstein Hospital in

Sao Paulo, whom Lula had invited to join his trip to Israel in March.

On that trip, the first by a Brazilian president in decades, Patriota

said Lula would have "an agenda of peace." 

¶8. (U) Minimize considered. SHANNON