Iraq's President Jalal Talabani was to make his first foray onto the world stage yesterday at a summit here of South American and Arab nations that many of his fellow Arab leaders have shunned.
Talabani is one of only five of the 22 members of the Arab League to be represented by a head of state at the two-day summit aimed at bringing the two distant regions closer together.
Arab diplomatic sources in Brasilia said the US had pressured several countries to stay away after the hosts turned down a request by Washington for observer status at the summit.
But Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and the heads of state from Algeria, Djibouti and Qatar will also be present to thank Brazil's socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for holding the summit.
The Brazilian leader has already hinted at his disappointment at the Arab turnout.
"The king of Jordan or the crown prince of Saudi Arabia go to Europe or the United States to do business. They can also do it here, we have many things that to offer to them," Lula said last week in an interview with French reporters.
"I would have liked to see greater Arab participation at the summit," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa acknowledged. But he insisted the summit would become a regular event.
The US is closely watching the summit as the final declaration includes a clause, critical of Israel, that will call for the dismantling of all Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a draft copy obtained by reporters.
Israel is to pull out from the Gaza Strip and part of West Bank this year.
Israel is said to be concerned by the summit statement but Mussa said on Monday: "Their worries don't concern me."
Participants are also expected to express opposition to Washington's sanctions against Syria and stress "the right for states and peoples to resist foreign occupation" and the need to "respect Iraq's territorial unity, independence and sovereignty."
Trade issues will also be tackled, although Argentina has aired reservations about Lula's push for increased south-south exchanges, noting that it could come at the expense of other markets.
Arab countries hope that South America will back Egypt's demands for a permanent seat in any reformed UN Security Council. Brazil, in turn, wants Arab support.
But Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, whose country is the most populated in the region, has delegated Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to represent him at the summit.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, and Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who was received with great pomp in Brasilia last year, have both turned down the invitation.
Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi are also shunning the summit, along with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Committees of experts from the two sides will be set up in a bid to improve trade between the two regions, officials said.
Brazilian diplomats say they hope negotiations will move forward during the summit on a proposed US$450 million Libyan investment in irrigation projects for Brazil's northeastern Bahia state.
Two-way trade between Brazil and Arab countries -- with exports and imports balanced -- totaled US$8.1 billion last year -- a near 50 percent increase over 2003.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS