For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 20, 2003
Joint Statement Between the United States of America and the Federative Republic of Brazil
The United States and Brazil resolve to create a closer and
qualitatively stronger relationship between our two countries. It is
time to chart a newly purposeful direction in our relationship, guided
by a shared vision of freedom, democracy, peace, prosperity, and
well-being for our peoples, in order to promote hemispheric and global
cooperation.
We are among the most populous democracies in the world. Forged
from diverse cultures, proving that diversity is our strength.
Continental in size and immigrant in origin, we share the fundamental
belief that freedom, democracy, and social justice are universal
aspirations, essential for peace and prosperity and unconstrained by
either culture or level of economic development. Our commitment to
human rights for all people in every nation is strong and unwavering.
We agree that representative democracy and the rule of law are
indispensable to building modern economies and political systems that
promote growth, accountability, transparency, and stability, and
encourage economic opportunity without favor or prejudice. Democracy
is essential to sustainable development. In the same way, reducing
inequality and improving social justice contribute to stability and
international security.
We affirm that countries should embrace policies that promote
growth and social inclusion, which are the key to increasing incomes,
improving standards of living, and ending poverty and hunger. We share
the conviction that governments should work to empower their people
through good governance, fighting corruption, ensuring personal
security, encouraging enterprise, and providing all citizens access to
high-quality education, adequate health, and nutritional care.
We agree that free trade furthers prosperity and development,
contributes to the promotion of entrepreneurial initiative and to the
strengthening of the private sector, with positive social impact. We
also agree that trade liberalization can contribute to dynamic growth,
technological innovation, and to individual and collective advancement
over the long term. We therefore reaffirm our commitment to fighting
protectionism.
We have built creative, entrepreneurial societies. Regionally as
well as globally, we have important responsibilities in areas such as
commerce, science and technology, energy, environmental protection,
education, and health. The currents of commerce and culture that link
our societies run strong and deep. Our partnership of shared values
leads us to seek a natural partnership of shared endeavors.
As two nations recognizing both the promise and desperate poverty
of Africa, and the strong ties and African heritage of many of our
citizens, we commit ourselves to working together for an African
continent that lives in liberty, peace, and growing prosperity. We
intend to pursue this goal through our diplomacy and the promotion of
projects that reinforce economic, commercial, social, and cultural ties
with the countries of Africa.
Therefore, the United States and Brazil will engage in regular
consultations, working together for prosperity, democratic governance,
and peace in the hemisphere and beyond. Reaffirming our commitment to
advance common values, we will continue to work together to protect and
advance democracy, human rights, tolerance, religious freedom, free
speech and independent media, economic opportunity, and the rule of
law.
We will cooperate on issues of mutual interest that contribute to
the defense and security of the hemisphere, bolstering joint efforts to
counter terrorism, narcotics trafficking and consumption, trafficking
in persons, and other transnational criminal challenges to regional
peace.
Our strength lies in the ability of our people to shape their
destiny and to realize their aspirations for a better life. That is
why the United States and Brazil are and will remain allies in the
cause of democracy. We will share our experience in nurturing and
strengthening democratic institutions the world over, thereby fighting
challenges to the democratic order from poverty, illiteracy,
intolerance, and terrorism. Moreover, we recognize that successfully
addressing the hemisphere's challenges requires collaborative and
cooperative efforts and, to that end, we will work together to
strengthen the Organization of American States, the bulwark of regional
cooperation, including through implementation of the Inter-American
Democratic Charter. We need to reinforce the U.N. system, especially
by exploring ways to make the Security Council and other U.N. bodies
more effective and more responsive to current international challenges
and realities.
We have much to learn from each country's unique experience in
modernizing our economies; achieving advances in science, technology,
and medicine; finding solutions to pressing environmental problems;
addressing energy challenges and needs; and advancing quality education
and expanding enrollments in primary education. We are committed to
working together to find concrete ways to extend the benefits of these
reforms to all our people.
We will cooperate, including through direct contacts between the
business communities of our countries, to advance U.S.-Brazilian
economic, trade, and investment relations; and recognizing our
responsibility as co-chairs of the negotiations, to successfully
conclude the negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas by
January 2005.
We will work together to preserve and promote stability and growth
in the global economy. Opening trade and resisting protectionism are
essential for meeting that challenge. We support an open, equitable,
transparent, and rules-based multilateral trading system, and we will
work together to strengthen it, especially by working for a successful
completion of the WTO negotiations of the Doha Development Agenda by
January 2005.
Today, we pledge to deepen the U.S.-Brazilian partnership in
mutually positive ways, always seizing opportunities to advance the
diversified interests we have in common, always seeking to reconcile
differences through dialogue and engagement. Our constructive
partnership is not an end in itself, but a means to all these ends. It
is reinforced by, inter alia, academic, cultural and commercial ties,
and increasing kinship among our people. In this process of further
enhancing our bilateral relations, we have decided to give special
attention to the following areas: science and technology, energy,
education, health, economic growth, and agriculture.
As further indication of our close ties, U.S. and Brazilian
advisors will consult often, maintaining a dialogue on these matters of
mutual interest. We have also agreed on a framework for high-level
consultations and joint working groups across the broad spectrum of
areas in which we are determined to institutionalize our enhanced
cooperation.
For the United States and Brazil, this is a day marked by the
crossing of a new threshold into a higher stage in our relationship.
We have before us the possibility to realize the full potential of such
a relationship. We will work to seize that opportunity, for our
benefit and for all those with whom we share this increasingly
interdependent world.
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