Minister Zia and Political Counselor Haidari Visit Brazil
Afghanistan’s Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Mr. Mohammad Ehsan Zia, and Political Counselor M. Ashraf Haidari, who manages Afghanistan’s non-resident diplomatic relations with Brazil, paid an official visit to Brasilia during March 1-3, 2009. They met with Mr. Miguel Jorge, Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Miguel Jorge; Mr. Silas Brasileiro, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply; and Ambassador Roberto Jaguaribe, Undersecretary General for Political Affairs of the Ministry of External Relations. The bilateral meetings focused on a discussion of Afghanistan’s expanding relations with Brazil, and assessing areas of technical cooperation with the country.
Minister Zia conveyed the gratitude of President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people to the Brazilian officials for their government’s recent financial pledge to assist Afghanistan’s reconstruction efforts. Minister Zia thanked Deputy Minister of Agriculture Silas Brasileiro and Dr. Elisio Contini, Head of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), for the thorough briefing the Afghan delegation received at the Embrapa-Cerrado facility in Brasilia. Both sides agreed that the Ministries of Agriculture in Brazil and Afghanistan exchange technical delegations to initiate programs for implementation based on a Memorandum of Understanding.
In their meeting with Minister Jorge, Minister Zia explored cooperation in developing light industries and agribusiness sector in Afghanistan. Minister Jorge said they had been working with a number of countries in Latin America and Africa to help them with processing food and horticultural products, as well as transferring knowledge and technology to enable those countries to do so on their own. He said Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade was ready to work with Embrapa to begin assisting Afghanistan, soon after an exchange of technical delegations to assess specific areas of collaboration.
Ambassador Jaguaribe reiterated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to expanding relations with Afghanistan and assisting the country’s reconstruction efforts. Brazil is going to participate in the upcoming international conference on Afghanistan in Hague, the Netherlands, on March 31, 2009, which some 75 other countries will attend to discuss international stabilization and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and reaffirm their continued support for the country.
Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim signed Basic Agreement for Technical Cooperation between Brazil Afghanistan in Brasilia on August 1, 2006. Afghanistan and Brazil initiated the signing of the Agreement based on the participation of Brazil in the London Conference in early 2006. Foreign Minister Amorim praised Afghanistan’s achievement of the Bonn Agreement objectives at the London Conference and pledged to help the country implement the goals of the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development (ANDS).
In September 2004, Afghanistan and Brazil reestablished non-resident diplomatic relations through their Embassies in United States and Pakistan respectively. Afghanistan’s first indirect diplomatic relations with Brazil began in 1962. Prime Minister Hashim Maiwandwal, who served as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States during 1958-1963, became Afghanistan’s first non-resident Ambassador to Brazil. Relations between the two countries stalled after the breakdown of government institutions in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979.
