A New Normal for US-Brazil Relations

By Peter Hakim
Estadão, June 30, 2014

Below is an excerpt from the English version of this article. To read in its entirety, click here.

A New Normal for US-Brazil Relations
by Peter Hakim

30 June 2014

After cheering the opening match victory of the US World Cup team, US Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Brasilia to meet with President Dilma Rousseff. Their encounter turned out to be yet another sign of the deterioration of US-Brazil relations following the disclosure of US spying on Brazil a year ago.  While Biden expressed confidence that US-Brazil relations would “return to normal", he gave no hint of how or when that might occur—and no suggestion of what he meant by “normal.” 

The US vice president was far more optimistic after his meeting with President Rousseff a little more than a year ago.  Back then, he asserted that 2013 would mark the “beginning of a new era US-Brazilian ties.” Although surely exaggerated, his enthusiasm had some basis. The Brazilian president had recently accepted a White House invitation for a state visit to Washington, viewed in Brazil as a welcome affirmation of Brazil’s international stature. Obama had previously honored only seven other world leaders with a state visit, all of them either close US allies or major global powers.