St. Kitts-Nevis has signed a technical cooperation agreement with Brazil that officials say will lead to a deepening of relations between the two countries.
St. Kitts & Nevis Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Brantley who signed the accord on Friday, said the twin-island Federation has in the past benefitted from its diplomatic relations with Brazil.
“There are opportunities for exchange in language training in Portuguese and English, opportunities even in the context of healthcare. Brazil is known for its healthcare and culture; your carnival is one of the best known carnivals in the world and so these are all examples of where we can benefit mutually from this relationship,” he said.“We know you have tremendous expertise in football and sports generally. That is an area also that I think we can cooperate in, in order for our people to benefit. St. Kitts and Nevis as you know is a football crazy island just like Brazil.
Brazil’s ambassador to St. Kitts-Nevis, Douglas Wanderly de Vasconcellos said that his country’s technical cooperation differs from others and “part of its success in providing such assistance to Latin American, African and Caribbean countries derives from the fact that Brazil shares some common challenges and tested solutions” with the territories.
“Another distinctive trade of the Brazilian technical cooperation is that it is granted with no strings attached,” he said.
“We do not interfere in internal affairs of countries, we pose no conditionality. We try to pursue that on a par with countries that we recognize as true partners. That is the whole atmosphere that guides the Brazilian technical cooperation.”
Brantley welcomed the criteria used by Brazil in providing assistance to developing countries.
“It is true as you know that many times assistance is offered and there are strings attached and so I think our public will be delighted to know that in the context of our relationship with Brazil that there are no strings attached and that we approach these matters bilaterally.
“We approach these matters on a nation to nation basis in the interest of the ties that exist between our peoples and the commonalities that you described.”
St. Kitts and Nevis and the Federative Republic of Brazil established diplomatic relations in 1985.
