Global General

Brazil's new President to visit China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-04 10:35

BRASILIA - China, along with Argentina, Uruguay and the United States, will be one of the first foreign trip destinations of Brazil's new President Dilma Rousseff, said a statement posted on the Brazilian government's website Monday.

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Rousseff's preliminary schedule of trips includes China because the Asian country is one of Brazil's main trading partners, according to Marco Aurelio Garcia, the president's special advisor for international affairs.

The statement said Rousseff also intended to visit Peru and Bulgaria, but the dates have yet to be fixed by Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota.

Rousseff and US President Barack Obama are expected to meet and discuss issues such as clean energy and human rights in the first half of 2011, it said. Their advisers scheduled the meeting soon after Rousseff won the presidential elections.

During the inauguration ceremony in Brasilia on Saturday, Rousseff had a conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for about 15 minutes.

She met with her Uruguayan counterpart Jose Mujica Sunday morning at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia and reaffirmed to him the commitment to maintain bilateral meetings every three months - an initiative implemented by her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Rousseff's foreign policies are expected to follow the guidelines of Lula's government, which encouraged the South-South relations and the rapprochement with Latin American countries.