Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota will depart on a visit to Cuba on Monday 16th January. The main purpose of his journey is to prepare the ground for the later (separate) visit of President Dilma Rousseff.
Mr. Patriota will meet with, among others, his ‘opposite number’ Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban Foreign Minister. The wide-ranging agenda for their discussions will include items of mutual interest and co-operation such as scientific and technical matters. In particular, areas such as agriculture and health will feature, as well as discussing broader issues of regional (Latin American) integration.
A central project is the ethical investment by Brazil in the development of the Cuban port of Mariel. This is an example of international investment carried out by the leading BRIC nation, even in a situation where expected financial returns (if any) are likely to be long-term and indirect and based on helping the other to flourish in many different ways.
The background to these talks rests on the fact that the two countries have become economically much more important to each other in recent years. A central fact is that from 2006 to the end of 2010 trade between Cuba and Brazil grew by a massive thirty per cent to nearly US$500 million. The following year, mutual commerce grew again, to a new total of $570m.
When Dilma meets the Cuban President Raul Castro ( Fidel’s brother) it will be against a backdrop of change in Cuban society. In recent times Castro has gradually been liberalising the island’s society and economy. In practice this means easing the formerly very tightly controlled system to allow elements of private enterprise and personal choice to become much more prominent.
The high-level visits by Dilma and Patriota reinforce the fact that Brazil sees great opportunities for its own economy in this relationship based on ethical investment. This is turn will feed through to the general domestic benefit of ordinary Brazilians as mutual commerce continues to grow..
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