Rousseff to meet Obama, resume state visits

Rio de Janeiro, Oct 29 (IANS/EFE) Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has announced she will meet US President Barrack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Australia next month and resume reciprocal state visits in her second term.

In a televised interview Tuesday, Rousseff said last year's crisis triggered by US intelligence agencies had a "suitable" solution allowing for a resumption of state visits.

Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington a year ago after revelations that the US National Security Agency had spied on her and the state-owned Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

"We had a telephone conversation and agreed to meet Nov 14 and 15 at the G20 summit," she said.

"We decided that we will adopt all the measures necessary to continue our strategic relations, including reciprocal state visits in this second term, mine as well as his," said Rousseff, who was re-elected Sunday.

The head of state added that she would be taking up the espionage matter in the meeting with Obama.

"Obviously we will have an agreement about that to clarify the situation. But it needs to be a suitable (solution)," Rousseff said in the interview.

The president described relations with the US as strategic for Brazil and that these included a broad agenda that comprises economic matters and a strategic association in science and technology as well as cooperation in defence.

"We also want to address specific issues regarding trade relations because we have been having deficits in our trade with the United States. We don't want to reverse this deficit but show that we have a huge trade potential that we want to exploit," she said.

The two leaders talked during Obama's call to Rousseff to congratulate her on her re-election and to emphasise the "strategic value" of the bilateral relationship.

According to a statement by the White House, the US president reaffirmed his commitment to deepen cooperation with Brazil "in areas such as trade, energy and other bilateral issues".

--IANS/EFE

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