Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota demanded information on NSA spying in Brazil from visiting Secretary of State John Kerry and warned relations could be hurt.
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| Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota |
Secretary of State John Kerry, who was visiting Brasilia, sought to allay Brazil's concerns about the program, saying the U.S. would work to provide answers to Brazil and other Latin American nations rankled by the NSA surveillance revealed by systems analyst Edward Snowden.
"We're now facing a new type of challenge in our bilateral relationship," Brazil Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said at a news conference. "The challenge is related to news about the interception of Brazilian electronic and telephone communications. And if those challenges are not resolved in a satisfactory way, we run the risk of casting a shadow of distrust over our work."
He said Brazil was seeking explanations through political, diplomatic and technical channels, but that those clarifications were not an "end to themselves."
"We need to stop practices that violate sovereignty, " he said.
The O Globo newspaper reported last month that information released by Snowden showed Brazil is the top target in Latin America for the NSA's massive intelligence-gathering effort, aimed at monitoring communications around the world.
Kerry defended the NSA program, saying it had been approved by all three branches of the U.S. government.
"We're not surprised, and we're not upset that Brazil would ask questions. Absolutely understandable," Kerry said.
"Brazil is owed answers with respect to those questions, and they will get them. And we will work together very positively to make certain that this question — these issues — do not get in the way of all the other things that we talked about," Kerry said.
He said he could not discuss operational issues, but said the U.S. is talking to the Brazilians about the program.
"We will guarantee that Brazil and other countries will understand exactly what we are doing — why and how — and we will work together to make sure that whatever is done is done in a way that respects our friends and our partners. And that is what we are going to achieve."
Revelations about NSA snooping in Brazil came at a time when the U.S. has been trying to expand the relationship with Brazil, an economic powerhouse in Latin America.
During President Barack Obama's visit to Brazil in 2011, the two nations signed 10 bilateral agreements. Five more were signed when Brazil President Dilma Rousseff visited the United States earlier this year, evidence of enhanced cooperation between the two countries.
Rousseff, who met with Kerry Tuesday afternoon, has been invited again to Washington in October, when Obama hosts a state visit for Brazil.
Both Patriota and Kerry boasted that the U.S.-Brazil relationship had matured and that the two nations were working together on many issues, including trade, energy, gender equality, sustainable development, deforestation, climate change, biofuels and visa-free travel between the two countries.
Kerry said the U.S. did not want the surveillance dispute to taint relations.
