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UN: Give Brazil a permanent seat!
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Brazil should have a greater role in international affairs, including a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council.
Sarkozy, on the first day of a visit expected to include an arms deal with Latin America’s largest nation, praised Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for promoting global environmental awareness.
“We need President Lula as a permanent member in the Security Council and we need him to lead the issue of the preservation of the environment,” Sarkozy said at the beginning of a Brazil-European Union summit.
Sarkozy and Silva are expected to sign an agreement promoting the sustainable development and protection of the Amazon rain forest, as well as an arms deal which includes the transfer of French technology to help Brazil build four conventional submarines and the hull of Latin America’s first nuclear submarine.
Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told the Agencia Estado private news service that the deal also include the purchase of 50 Cougar helicopters which also would be built in Brazil.
Earlier this year, France promised to provide Brazil with the technology to build the Scorpene attack submarine, a conventional diesel-powered vessel that Brazilian officials hope to use to develop a nuclear-propelled submarine.
Silva said in his weekly radio address earlier Monday that Brazil needs to wants to modernize its weapons industry to protect its vast offshore oil fields.
Other agreements expected between France and Brazil involve the fields of nuclear energy, education, science and technology, including joint projects between the French National Space Studies Center and the Brazilian Space Agency.
Sarkozy, who is also inaugurating festivities for the Year of France in Brazil, arrived with his wife, Carla Bruni, whose father lives in Rio de Janeiro state.
Source: International Herald Tribune (via Associated Press).
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