RIO DE JANEIRO, January 2. /TASS/. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is convinced that relations between her country and Russia will be developing fruitfully both on the bilateral plane and in the format of cooperation within BRICS (an informal group of countries uniting Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa), a high-rank member of Russian parliament said on Friday.
Vladimir Torshin, a deputy chairman of the upper house of Russian parliament, on Thursday attended Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration for the second term of office.
He said Rousseff told him she was looking forward to a trip to the Russian city of Ufa in July 2015 where BRICS leaders were expected to have a summit meeting.
“Brazilian President called development of relations with Russia one of the main priorities of her foreign policy as she addressed the national parliament right after taking the presidential oath,” Torshin said.
“Moscow attaches significance to bilateral cooperation with Brazil and praises this country’s perfectly balanced position on the complicated problems that are marring the situation in Europe and in other parts of the planet,” he said.
Torshin voiced confidence in good prospects for Russia’s relations with Latin America. He said he had gotten even more convinced of it after meetings with Presidents Evo Morales, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, and Michelle Bachelet of Chili, who had also been invited to Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration.
As a TASS correspondent said from Washington, the re-elected Brazilian President had also spoken to the U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden who had congratulated her on behalf of President Barack Obama and had stressed the strategic importance of U.S.-Brazilian partnership.
According to the White House press service, Dilma Rousseff agreed to the importance of working in the spirit of equitable partnership so as to press forward with a realistic and ambitious agenda of bilateral, regional and global cooperation.
Rousseff was re-elected President on October 26, 2014. She won the election by a small margin upon getting 51.64% votes.