Brazil–Russia (, ) relations have seen significant improvement in recent years, characterized by increased commercial trades and cooperation in military and technology segments. The two countries maintain important partnerships in areas such as space, military technologies, and telecommunications.
According to a 2017 report by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 35% of Brazilians have a favorable view of Russia, while 36% expressed an unfavorable view.
Both Brazil and Russia are members of BRICS, a group of major emerging economies.
Country comparison
History
Diplomatic relations between Brazil and Russia were initiated on October 3, 1828, making Brazil the first South American and first Latin American country with formalized tied to Russia. In 1876, the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, paid a private visit to Russia.
The diplomatic relations were interrupted twice: in 1917, after the October Revolution (being reestablished on April 2, 1945), and in 1947 due to the right-wing government of the military Eurico Gaspar Dutra (reestablished in 1961, during the government of Jânio Quadros).
Brazil maintained a neutral but distant relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Their bilateral relations were limited to commercial trade and cooperation agreements of minimal importance. In 1988, José Sarney made the first official visit of a Brazilian Head of State to the USSR.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent birth of the Russian Federation, talks between the two nations increased. Brazil was one of the first countries to recognize the Russian Federation as the legal successor of the Soviet Union (December 26, 1991). In 1994, Celso Amorim made the first official visit of a Brazilian Foreign Minister to Russia.
Since then, bilateral relations between Russia and Brazil have been characterized by the positive dynamics of political contacts at all levels. In 1997 the Russian-Brazilian Commission of High Level of Cooperation (CAN) was created, headed by the Head of Government of the Russian Federation and the Vice-President of the Federative Republic of Brazil and regulated by the Brazil-Russia Cooperation Treaty, signed on November 21, 1997. Its operational mechanism is the Intergovernmental Cooperation Commission (CIC).
In June 2000, the two countries signed the Basic Agreement on partnership relations. In 2001, a high-level committee headed by then Vice-President of Brazil Marco Maciel, and then Prime minister of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov, established several long-term bilateral treaties, initiating a strategic partnership between the two countries, and creating the Brazilian-Russian Governmental Commission. In 2002, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso made an official visit to Russia when the "Strategic Partnership" between the two countries was celebrated. The following year, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov visited Brazil.
Continuing that path, another Vice-President of Brazil, José Alencar, traveled to Moscow in September 2003 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his senior cabinet members. The two countries signed the Brazil-Russia Military Technology and Transfer Pact, an important agreement in the area of space technology, missile defense, and military weapons transfer.
In response to an invitation made by then Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vladimir Putin made a state visit to Brazil on November 22, 2004, being the first visit of a Russian President in the history of bilateral relations, when the "Technological Alliance" was celebrated between the two countries. On October 18, 2005, during a state visit of President Lula to Moscow, the two heads of state signed the bilateral Brazil-Russia Strategic Alliance, as well as an agreement that made it possible for the Brazilian Space Agency to send the first Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, into space aboard Soyuz TMA-8.
In 2006, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Brazil, when the Memorandum of Understanding for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Political Dialogue and Cooperation between Mercosur and the Russian Federation was signed. On November 26, 2008, during a state visit of then President Dmitry Medvedev to Brazil, the two countries signed agreements on visa exemption, and cooperation in the aerospace, nuclear and defense industries.
The second BRIC summit was held in Brasília, following the first in Russia.
