Address at Official Dinner in honour of President Robinson by President Cardoso Brazil
Brazil, 29 March 1995
Mr. President, Distinguished Guests,
Brazil has long stirred the imagination of the outside world. Its vast size, great contrasts and breath-taking beauty have long been a source of endless fascination. Its extensive hinterland, in particular the Amazon Basin, has represented for many people a symbol of that part of our world that remains to be discovered.
The Brazilians are universally esteemed as a friendly people, renowned for the uplifting "joie de vivre" and infectious enthusiasm which they communicate in their cultural expression and artistic endeavour. A people which has maintained a sense of proportion in the face of the often daunting challenges and bewildering changes of modern life.
This combination of people and place has made Brazil a magnet for visitors in search of renewal and adventure.
Our two countries have grounds for optimism about the future. Both Brazil and Ireland stand at a threshold of great hope in our respective histories. We can now aspire to address successfully problems which have hitherto appeared intractable.
In Ireland, we now have peace on the island for the first time in a generation. There is a unique opportunity for us to reach a settlement and find a new partnership between the two traditions in Ireland.
The essential factors to such a new accommodation are agreement and consent. Last month, the Irish and British Governments published their considered view of where agreement might be found in a collective talks process involving the two Governments and the Northern Ireland parties. This Framework for Agreement sets down the possible shape of an overall accommodation which, in the view of the two Governments, would give honourable expression to the rights and values of both traditions in Northern Ireland.
Hopefully, we will now see a process of discussion and negotiation get underway which will enable progress to be made towards a settlement, a settlement that will reflect the new ordering of our relationships and that will promote healing and reconciliation.
In Brazil, the consolidation of democracy and successful economic stabilisation are remarkable achievements which have created favourable circumstances for further progress. Your own part, Mr. President, both as Finance Minister and since becoming President, in furthering the economic and monetary stability of your great country is well known. You have rightly recognised, however, that economic development is not an end itself. It is rather a means by which the needs of all of the people may be more adequately satisfied. We are encouraged by the priority you are giving at the outset of your administration to addressing the challenges with which your country is faced.
The ever-accelerating pace of scientific progress and technological advance has brought us to a wonderful threshold of knowledge and opportunity. It has also raised fundamental questions about the place of the individual in our society and of our relationship to our environment. As we are drawn ever closer together by the shrinking world of modern communications, so we have come to realise that many of these issues have global implications and concern us all.
A seminal step in this process was the successful outcome of the Earth Summit, to which the innovative leadership of Brazil, as host, contributed greatly. Its essential message was the urgent need for prudent utilisation of the shared heritage of our natural environment in the interests of present and future generations.
More recently the World Summit in Copenhagen on Social Development has performed a valuable service in focusing international attention on the urgent need to address the issues of poverty alleviation and reduction, the expansion of productive employment and social integration. Peace and stable growth will not be sustainable unless firmly underpinned by social justice and balances as well as democratic structures and respect for human rights.
Conferences on global issues are now an integral part of the efforts of the United Nations organisation to tackle the underlying causes of instability and conflict. Ireland strongly supports the strengthening of the UN to equip it to fulfil more effectively the increasing responsibilities it is being called upon to assume, in particular in the areas of conflict prevention, dispute settlement, crisis management and humanitarian assistance. I am aware of the central importance which Brazil also attaches to enhancing the role of the UN in the international system. Where conflict has erupted, Ireland has traditionally been active in peace-keeping missions and at any one time a significant proportion of our defence forces are engaged in such operations. We warmly welcome the role also of Brazil in U.N. peacekeeping operations.
In its own region, Brazil has been a factor for stability with an honourable history of peaceful coexistence with its neighbours. It is fitting that your country should be at the centre of the ambitious initiatives of the past decade to promote regional and sub-regional co-operation in Latin America. The establishment of the Rio Group, at a meeting to which you played host, was a landmark event in promoting and consolidating the spread of democracy in Latin America. More recently, the striking initial success of the pioneering Mercosul project has generated considerable momentum for economic integration.
The European Union naturally takes a close and supportive interest in the process of integration in Latin America, with which its history is so closely intertwined. The institutional relationship between the Union and the Rio Group has provided the framework for a structured dialogue on political, economic and cultural issues of mutual concern.
Ireland will assume the Presidency of the European Union in the second semester of 1996. We look forward to playing our part in furthering development of the relationship between the Union and Latin America. We recall with great satisfaction that it was in the Dublin Declaration on the Environment, a major initiative of the last Irish Presidency, that the idea of the pilot programme in which the Union has co-operated with the Brazilian Government in conserving the tropical forests of the Amazon was first launched.
The participation of our two countries in the regional integration process on our respective continents will reinforce and give momentum to our bilateral relations for which, I believe, the outlook is promising. Already Brazil is Ireland's largest trade partner in South America. Our exchanges should benefit from the remarkable upsurge in the Brazilian economy, the very substantial trade liberalisation measures adopted in recent years by the Brazilian Government and the more favourable international trading environment.
Ireland has an outward looking people and economy with a rapidly expanding and diversifying trade in traditional food and modern high-technology products. I believe that our two countries have much more to offer one another and that there is considerable scope for expansion in our commercial exchanges.
In concluding may I express the hope that my visit to your country will contribute to further strengthening the excellent relations which exist between our two countries. And so I now ask you to join with me in a toast to The President and people of the Federative Republic of Brazil.