Brasilia, July 6, 2015
Good evening! Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
On behalf of United States Embassy in Brasilia, and my husband Luis, and daughter Stefanie, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our Independence Day celebration.
It is a privilege to host and welcome His Excellency the Minister of Education Renato Janine Ribeiro, His Excellency the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Aldo Rebelo, His Excellency the Chief Minister of the Ports Secretariat Edinho Araújo. We are honored to have you join us for this special occasion along with so many of the officials in the Brazilian Government with whom we work so closely. I also welcome the members of the National Congress.
Gathered here tonight we have an impressive representation of a broad cross-section of the community of nations. Ambassadors, colleagues in the diplomatic corps, thank you all for coming. I would also like to thank our many sponsors who made tonight’s celebration possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, friends, I have just returned from Washington, D.C. where I took part in the historic meeting between President Rousseff and President Obama. I would like to reinforce what President Obama said in that occasion. He said that the visit marked “one more step in a new, more ambitious chapter in the relationship between our countries. We are focused on the future.”
The U.S.-Brazil partnership is dynamic and vital. President Dilma’s visit to the United States sent an important message about our common interest in reaching the great potential of this relationship and raise it to a new level.
We are the two largest countries and economies of the hemisphere – and the two largest democracies. We are continental countries with a shared history and common challenges. Maybe our biggest challenge is to guarantee that our democracies approach the needs, interests and aspirations of our people.
We can do much more working together than alone. This is the key to our partnership and this is what we expect to continue doing. Let’s take full advantage of this excellent moment of the bilateral cooperation. We have a rich and diversified agenda that includes topics such as: fight global climate changes, work together in multilateral human rights challenges, strengthen our economies, deepen and broaden our cooperation in education; facilitate travels, communication and trade between our countries; anticipate future problems working together in science and technology and face broader regional and global challenges.
The list is long and I will not mention it all here. But the moment is now, and we plan to use this moment to advance our robust agenda of interests between Brazil and the United States.
It has been a busy and productive time for us and I expect the time between now and the next Fourth of July to be equally eventful. Appropriately, we will be applying the Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to all aspects of the bilateral relationship.
During her visit to the United States, President Rousseff gave to President Obama a Brazilian soccer jersey, to possibly be used during the Olympics in Rio and President Obama said that he will support the Brazilian athletes, as long as they are not competing against American ones. Partnerships have limits.
Once again it is an honor and a pleasure to be with you here today as we celebrate this important holiday, and as we look to the future. We look forward to a future in which Brazil and the United States will work ever more closely together, and with our friends and partners in the region and beyond.
And with that, I would like to ask you to join me in a toast to the future; to the United States and Brazil.
