UFA, July 9. /TASS/. Brazil attaches top priority importance to cooperation with Russia in the sphere of science and technology, including outer space research, the press service of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in a communique after her talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
"Among the important priorities of bilateral relations for us are [Russia’s] joining the Brazilian space project Aster, cooperation in trade and in partnership for a satellite launch," the communique quoted Rousseff as saying. She noted that Brazil and Russia had established relations of strategic partnership in the sphere of science and technology in 2004 and "since then this area of cooperation has become a driving engine for bilateral ties."
She said that the Brazilian delegation included Minister of Science and Technology Aldo Rebelo who was tasked to promote closer relations between the two countries in area of science.
The Brazilian Space Agency’s Aster project provides for sending a deep space probe to an asteroid spotted in 2008 between Mars and Jupiter.
According to earlier reports, Putin and Rousseff made public their readiness to step up bilateral cooperation in investment and in the sphere of space research and exploration. "Relations between our countries are developing at a fair pace, including collaboration between our parliaments that has a regular character," Putin said, adding that the two countries had joint plans the high-tech fields like aviation and space. "We’re thankful to you for the fact two stations in Brazil are already working in the GLONASS system and now we’re making arrangement on setting up a facility that would track down space garbage, which is really important not only for Brazil and Russia," Putin said.
Rousseff arrived in Ufa to take part in a BRICS summit. She is accompanied on this trip by the ministers of foreign affairs, finance, defence, and agriculture and the President of the Brazilian Central Bank.
Established in June 2006, the BRIC association originally included four countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China to be expanded to the BRICS format after South Africa joined it in 2011. Its goal is to promote active, pragmatic, open and transparent dialogue and cooperation between its member countries. The BRICS is an off-bloc association aimed at no third parties.
The first official summit of the association was held in Russia’s Yekaterinburg in June 2009. Ever since, summit meetings have been held annually in each of the member states alternatively. The latest summit took place in Brazil. Russia took over presidency in the BRICS from April 1, 2015. Russia is also presiding the BRICS Business Council in a period from April 2015 to April 2016. One of the goals of Russia’s presidency is to implement the agreements on the establishment of BRICS own financial institutions, namely the New Development Bank of BRICS (NDB) and Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The next BRICS summit will take place in Russia’s Ufa on July 8-9, 2015.
The BRICS countries account for 26% of the entire Earth’s area and 42% of the Earth’s population. In 2013, the BRICS accounted for 16.1% of global trade, for 10.8% of global defence spending, and for 40.2% of global production of traditional fuels.