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C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 000064 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2017 
TAGS: PREL BR
SUBJECT: FRANCE MAKES BRAZIL NUMBER ONE IN LATIN AMERICA 
 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR CLIFFORD SOBEL. REASONS: 1.4 (B)(D). 
 
¶1. (C) French Ambassador to Brazil Antoine Pouillieute met 
with Ambassador Sobel on January 9, 2007 for a surprisingly 
frank and substantive conversation.  Key themes from the 
meeting are reported below. 
 
BRAZIL -- THE NEW FRENCH PRIORITY 
 
¶2. (C) Pouillieute noted that his government has a 
complicated relationship with Brazil and had recently decided 
to make Brazil France's largest and most important embassy in 
Latin America. His government has upgraded its presence in 
Brazil to 110 French nationals, thereby surpassing the French 
contingent in Mexico. Some of France's most successful and 
promising recent endeavors with Brazil have been in the area 
of military sales, where Pouillieute said the potential for 
sale of additional future French military equipment (NFI) is 
quite good. 
 
¶3. (C) Pouillieute commented that the EU's efforts in Brazil 
are not united and that each EU Country is pursuing its own 
aims in Brazil separately. He commented that he had little 
faith in the EU-Mercosul free trade negotiations, confirming 
that they basically boiled down to what will likely be a 
biofuels deal. In addition he speculated that even though 
Venezuela is not yet disruptive to Mercosul, it probably will 
be in the future and that it is critical to Brazil for 
Venezuela to become a full member. 
 
FOREIGN POLICY 
 
¶4. (C) Regarding broader Brazilian foreign policy issues, 
France has actually found a way to work within Brazil's 
stated south-south policy focus, using common interests in 
Africa as a key foundation. That said, Pouillieute admitted 
that the French were often frustrated with Brazil: the 
Brazilians had often been duplicitous, pointing out to 
African countries that they were natural allies given their 
common colonial past and reminding these countries that 
France had once exploited them. The French Ambassador was 
incredulous that the Brazilians could think that such 
comments would not eventually get back to the French. Another 
source of frustration for the French Ambassador is that the 
Brazilian foreign ministry (MRE) will often sideline some 
long-planned official French VIP visit to instead focus on 
some competing visit by a minor African visitor. This baffled 
Pouillietute. 
 
¶5. (C) Changing topics, Pouillieute said that Brazilian 
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim apparently has planned 
extensively for transition in Cuba, and knew exactly what 
Brazil's role would be in post-Castro scenarios on the island 
(NFI). Pouillieute also offered that there might be room for 
tripartite cooperation on law enforcement issues. (Note: US 
LEA's do not currently engage French counterparts on local 
efforts.) Finally, he expressed his amazement at the lengths 
Brazil was going to try to cultivate China. 
 
Sobel