News / Brazil / Editor's Choice

Brazil asks diplomats to promote Brazilian arms exports

Wednesday, 05 April 2017 9:02 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 05 April 2017 9:07 AM ]

Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira gives a speech during an agreement signing ceremony with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Abdallah bin Zayid Al Nuhayyan, at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, March 16, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Brazil has asked its diplomats to help increase the exports of Brazilian-made weapons as the country suffers one of its worst economic crises in decades.

Brazil is among the world’s largest light arms dealers.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to its embassies late last year instructing them to promote events and seminars with an eye on increasing the exports of products manufactured by the Defense Ministry.

The Rio de Janeiro think-tank Instituto Igarape and Sao Paulo violence prevention group Sou da Paz recently obtained a copy of the eight-page letter through Brazil’s Information Access Law.

The Folha de S. Paulo newspaper published excerpts from the letter Sunday, ahead of the April 4-7 LAAD defense and security fair in Rio de Janeiro.

The Foreign Ministry’s letter urges diplomats to help increase sales to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

“We have nothing against encouraging the defense industry to increase its exports,” Bruno Langeani, one of the directors of Sou da Paz, said by telephone. “But we are concerned with Brazil’s inadequate control of its arms sales to other countries.”

He said the government “must guarantee that the final buyer is not a country at war and can guarantee the safekeeping of the weapons.”

In 2016, Brazil exported 343 million dollars worth of light arms such as revolvers, pistols, machine guns, and rifles, Langeani said.

“We must develop adequate instruments for our industry to prosper and especially for it to compete with equal conditions on the international market,” Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said Tuesday at the opening of the defense fair.

Carlos Afonso Gamboa, the vice president of the Brazilian Association for Defense and Security industries, said Latin America, the Middle East, and South East Asia were Brazil’s target markets for weapons sales.

(Source: AP)

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk