VOA常速英语:The Many Ties Between The U.S. And Brazil

As part of his first official trip to South America as Secretary of State, John Kerry visited Brazil, a country we partner with across a wide range of issues.

More than one million Brazilians requested visas to the United States last year, and the U.S. consulate in Sao Paolo, which processed most of them, is our busiest in the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens travel to Brazil. Many of these visitors are students, taking part in educational exchanges under the auspices of programs such as the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program, which aims to send 101,000 Brazilian students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to study abroad by 2015– 47,000 of them to the United States— so they can use their newly acquired knowledge in science and technology to benefit their home country.

This program complements President Barack Obama's 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative, which promotes increased international educational exchanges between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean, including Brazil. The goal is to reach 100,000 exchanges annually in each direction. During their academic visits abroad, the students increase their understanding of their host countries, forging stronger ties between our peoples.

But the United States and Brazil cooperate on myriad issues, said Secretary Kerry. “We work together to advance economic opportunity, human rights, environmental protection, regional peace and security, democracy, as well as major global challenges in the Middle East and elsewhere.”

The United States and Brazil are working together to combat climate change, promote racial and ethnic equality, protect human rights of all people, including women, lesbian gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, people of African descent, and indigenous peoples. We recognize and applaud Brazil’s increasing leadership role in the Americas and on the wider international stage. As Brazil’s influence grows stronger, so does our partnership, said Secretary Kerry.

Describing the potential of the bilateral relationship, Secretary Kerry commented, “The U.S.-Brazil relationship has the opportunity to provide extraordinary positive global impact if we continue to work together on these kinds of issues, on the environment and science and technology and sustainable energy, noNPRoliferation, on access to education, on disaster management, and our strong trade ties, our strong investment ties, our energy cooperation, our sustainable development cooperation.”

“We share democratic values and we share a commitment to diversity and we share a determination to improve opportunities for our people.”