Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Larry Rohter BRAZIL BEGINS TO TAKE ROLE ON THE WORLD STAGE BRASILIA -- When Henry A. Kissinger visited here as secretary of state in the mid-1970's, his Brazilian counterpart, Antonio Azeredo da Silveira, made a point of escorting him on a tour of Itamaraty Palace, the ultramodern glass and marble headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Afterward, Mr. Silveira asked his American guest for his impressions. Grinning with amusement, Mr. Silveira later recalled in an interview Mr. Kissinger's reply: "It's a magnificent building, Antonio. Now all you need is a foreign policy to go with it." Nearly a quarter of a century later, the joke may finally be on the United States. Today an increasingly confident and assertive Brazil is emerging as both an American partner and rival in Latin America, steering its own course on political and economic matters and, in the words of Anthony S. Harrington, the United States ambassador here, "stepping out onto the world stage in a way that it never has before." At the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle last fall, for instance, it was Brazil that led the bloc of developing nations in criticizing Washington's position. And on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Brazil is sponsoring a first meeting of South American presidents here that is being seen as both a coming-out party and an effort to forge a unified regional front in negotiations with the United States about a hemispheric free-trade zone. "It is clearly the judgment that the continent is now ready for Brazil to assume a broader, more dynamic leadership role in regional affairs," Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere Program at Johns Hopkins University, said in referring to Brazilian leaders in an essay published this month by the Web site InfoBrazil.com. "And it is now understood in South America that the regional card to play is one that is led from Brasilia." As the largest country in Latin America but separated from its Spanish- speaking neighbors by its Portuguese language, Brazil has traditionally conducted a foreign policy that is pragmatic but that only recently began to emphasize relations within the region. By habit, said Helio Jaguaribe of the Institute for Political and Social Studies in Rio de Janeiro, "Brazil seeks cooperation," recognizing that "whether or not you like the United States, you have to live with it." For that reason the United States has welcomed the summit meeting, even though one of its goals is to blunt Washington's strategy in trade talks of favoring bilateral agreements in which it has the upper hand. "A South America assembled into a single bloc would add up to more than the sum of its parts and therefore be in a position to insist on more balanced negotiations with the North American trading bloc," said Gilberto Dupas of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Sao Paulo. If regional integration is to take place, the State Department would clearly prefer to see Brazil lead it rather than Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chavez, whose calls for South American unity contain authoritarian and markedly anti-American elements. Indeed, given its sheer size and the relative maturity and health of its democracy compared with some of its more troubled neighbors, Brazil may be best positioned to lead such a effort. "I think President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is looked upon as somewhat of an uncle by some of the other leaders in South America," Ambassador Harrington said in an interview. "His orientation and goal is to steer onto the path of democracy a few countries that may be a little more challenged there." The United States has recognized the benefits of Brazil's playing such a role since the early 1980's, when Brazilian diplomacy guided a leftist government in Suriname away from a flirtation with Cuba. More recently, Brazil helped negotiate the end to a potentially explosive border dispute between Ecuador and Peru, and has used its influence to head off potential military coups in Paraguay. President Clinton praised Brazil and Argentina during a visit to nuclear-armed India and Pakistan this spring as examples of nations that have successfully negotiated an end to dangerous nuclear programs and even become allies. Bitter military rivals for most of their history, Brazil and Argentina have in the last decade become partners in the Mercosul trade bloc and are now talking about adopting a common currency. The United States and Brazil have disagreed recently, however, over the suspect presidential election in Peru that resulted in a third term for Alberto K. Fujimori. The United States was pushing behind the scenes for sanctions, and American officials have complained privately that Brazil was undermining their efforts to nudge the Organization of American States into a tough collective stance. "Washington should have seen that one coming," said David Fleischer, a professor of political science at the National University of Brasilia. "If you want to bring the Andean nations into Mercosul, as Brazil apparently does, you are not going to want to slap them in the face." But it is the crisis in Colombia, with which Brazil shares a 1,000-mile border, that seems to have the most potential to become a source of disagreement with Washington. The Clinton administration's plan to supply $1.3 billion in military and economic aid to President Andres Pastrana of Colombia has been widely criticized in the Brazilian press and Congress, and official support for the American-backed effort appears lukewarm, at best. "Brazil certainly has concerns there could be a spillover onto our side, whether of coca cultivation and trafficking or of combat between the Colombian Army and guerrillas," Brazil's foreign minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, said in an interview here. The American aid plan to Colombia, he added, represents "a stepping up of the level of conflict" that "could generate this effect." At a joint news conference with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright during her South American tour this month, Mr. Lampreia's remarks were even stronger. "We do not have the same degree of commitment," he said of the plan in Colombia, with Dr. Albright by his side. "We have no intention of participating in any common or concerted international action." Another point of potential tension is the hemispheric free-trade talks, which are supposed to reach an agreement by 2005. Brazil and the United States are the co-chairmen, but after six years of negotiations, it is clear that the two nations have very different views, with some officials in Washington describing Brazil's position as "obstructionist." Brazil, in turn, complains of protectionist barriers and subsidies in the United States that discriminate against Brazilian products ranging from steel and textiles to sugar and orange juice. Speaking of access to the American market, Mr. Lampreia said, "What is essential for us is a free-trade agreement completely devoid of tariff and nontariff barriers so that we can have unobstructed access." - --- MAP posted-by: John Chase