Trump Meets With Brazil’s Foreign Minister at the White House

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araújo, met yesterday, August 30th, with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington.

Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, chairman of the Foreign Relations and National Defense Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, also attended the meeting.

“It was an excellent meeting. A very rare meeting as it must have been one of the first times that the U.S. president welcomes people who are not heads of state. This was exceptional deference showing the nature of the relationship between Brazil and the United States today,” said the Brazilian Chancellor.

The meeting in the U.S. capital took place less than a week after the repercussions of the fires in the Legal Amazon during the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France.

According to Araújo, the visit to the White House served to “thank President Trump for his role in the G7 in challenging (…) opinions that some kind of globalization of the Amazon is required.”

“The whole world knows that Brazil and the United States have a unique relationship. This is important at a time when some countries, perhaps, one country is having peculiar ideas about our sovereignty in the Amazon. Not a country, but a certain leader.”

Before the start of the G7 meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said he could not endorse the recent free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union if Brazil does not put an end to the fires in the Amazon rainforest and even spoke of the “internationalization of the Amazon”.

Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro confirmed on his way out of the meeting with Donald Trump that he had personally thanked the U.S. for its support during the G7 summit and noted the proximity between Brazil and the U.S.

“All leaders who have tried to subdue national sovereignty have found trouble not only with Brazil but also with the United States.”

“We cannot tolerate Macron in Brazil, the way he spoke and attacked our national sovereignty and later wanting to give some kind of help. It is not aid that comes from a good heart; it is aid that comes attached to other interests,” he said.

President Jair Bolsonaro has announced that he intends to appoint Eduardo Bolsonaro as Brazil’s ambassador to the United States.

“President Trump spontaneously reinforced his intention, very politely, to support my candidacy,” he said. “Senators will decide my future in terms of whether I can become the ambassador,” said Eduardo Bolsonaro.