Americas

Americas

Brazilian President meets Finnish PM on ties

15 February 2012 01:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met Tuesday with visiting Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and stressed Brazil’s interest in developing the bilateral relations, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Topics of their discussion also included eurozone crisis, trade ties, and the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20), which will be held in Rio in late June.

After the meeting, Rousseff and Katainen released a joint statement in which they welcomes the boost of bilateral ties and agreed to cooperate in several areas in the coming years. They also agreed to develop a stronger relationship on foreign policy issues and hold annual bilateral political consultations.

According to the document, Brazil and Finland are committed to fighting protectionism and advancing the WTO Doha Development Round, and reaffirmed their support to "a balanced and ambitious association agreement between Mercosur and the EU."

In addition, Finland agreed to strengthen academic and scientific cooperation with Brazil. Finland acknowledged the Brazilian government’s "Science without Borders" programs, which foresees scholarships for Brazilians students to study abroad, and expressed its interest in receiving Brazilian students and sending Finnish students to study in Brazil as well.

The two countries also agreed to intensify their cooperation in environmental issues and work together to make the Rio +20 Conference a success. Finland and Brazil are negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Cooperation.