Dilma's First Year…Overseas Visits

As she concludes her first year in Office, it’s interesting to look at the international Presidential visits made by Brazil’s Dilma Roussoff. These have been fewer, by the way than those conducted in either of his two terms’ first years of her predecessor and mentor, former President Lula da Silva.

However, both premiers have always shared the view that the BRIC nation’s overseas relations are of great importance. This is not least because of the crucial task of attracting ever-increasing overseas investments, in particular overseas property investment, to Brazil’s expanding economy. They’ve constantly emphasised, as they must, the message ‘Invest in Brazil’

Some commentators have formed the opinion that in terms of style, ‘Dilma’ tends to be more practical and discreet (and less ideological) than ‘Lula’ and point to several marked achievements, as they see them. These include her successful and impressive address to the UN in New York and of course the conclusion of the 'Apple' products assembly deal with China.

Dilma Roussoff’s actual travels for the year list simply as follows:

• A total of thirteen overseas visits
• Fifteen countries
• altogether 41 days out of Brazil

So far President Dilma Roussoff has not yet visited any Arab countries. This is a fact used as the basis for certain criticisms from some quarters. However she and the coalition government she heads deny these (while pointing to their criticism, for example, of the violence in Syria) and instead emphasis the remarkable achievements of Brazil’s new regime in many other directions.