Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and take up the baton of the 2018 World Cup in Russia in Rio de Janeiro on June 13.
Putin will pay an official visit to Brazil, which he has not been to since 2004, on July 13-16.
“Rio de Janeiro will host the closing ceremony of the World Cup on
July 13, during which a meeting between Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff, FIFA President Joseph Blatter, and Russian President Vladimir
Putin will take place. Russia will take up the baton from Brazil at this
meeting,” Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told journalists in the run up to
Putin’s tour of a number of Latin American countries on July 10.
“As a working plan, we expect to have several bilateral meetings with
the country leaders attending the final. The particular individuals
have not yet been determined, but I can presume that Germany’s advance
to the final will entail some nuances, obviously,” he said.
Putin might also have stand-up meetings with other country leaders as well, he said.
Sports will be given special attention during Putin’s trip to Brazil,
Ushakov said. “Russia is to host the World Football Championship in
2018, in preparations for which the experience of the Brazilian World
Cup will be taken into account. Rio de Janeiro will be the city hosting
the next Olympic Games in 2016, and Krasnoyarsk and Brasilia will be the
capitals of the winter and summer universiades in 2019,” Ushakov said.
The key event of Putin’s visit to Brazil should be his bilateral
talks with President Rousseff scheduled for July 14 in Brasilia, he
said.
The last time the two leaders met was during a G20 summit in St. Petersburg in Sep. 2013.
“The agenda of the Russian-Brazilian top level negotiations embraces
the entire range of issues pertaining to bilateral and international
cooperation. International issues will be touched upon during the talks,
including issues concerning coordination of approaches within the UN,
BRICS, G20, WTO, and between regional integration associations,” Ushakov
said.
A number of intergovernmental, interagency, and commercial agreements
intended to stimulate interaction in various sectors, i.e. energy,
healthcare, transport, agriculture, customs regulation, culture, and
education, have been prepared for signature, Ushakov said.
“Military-technological cooperation is an issue that will be
discussed. Documents are being prepared for signing in Brazil,” he
added.
The presidents will exchange opinions on “how to stimulate growth in
mutual trade and encourage mutual investment flows,” he said.
Brazil is Russia’s largest trade partner in Latin America. Trade
between the two countries has tripled over the past 10 years, although
it went down by 3.3 percent to $5.5 billion in 2013 amid instability in the
world economy.
“Russia and Brazil are interacting in the space exploration sector.
One ground data acquisition system has been operating on the territory
of the University of Brasilia since 2013. Two more stations, a laser and
a non-query one, should be put into operation by the time of Putin’s
visit to Brazil,” he said.
