Planalto Presidential Palace
Brasília, Brazil
PRESIDENT TEMER: (Speaks Portuguese.) (No translation provided.)
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: Well, thank you, Mr. President. And we’ll certainly be cheering for Brazil today and tomorrow. Thank you for the warm hospitality on my first visit to Brazil.
And I spoke to President Trump this morning and he wanted me to extend to you his greetings and his appreciation for the strong, strategic partnership that is enjoyed between the two largest democracies of this hemisphere. The relationship between the United States and Brazil goes back through the generations.
And we believe we are tied together for mutual security, we are tied together in the promotion of freedom, but we’re also tied together in strong economic bonds. And I look very much forward in our discussions today to looking for ways that we can strengthen that security relationship but also strengthen economic ties between our people.
I know, Mr. President, that your government has taken great strides to strengthen the economy of Brazil. And we’re grateful for your leadership (inaudible) anxious to find ways that we can even encourage more commerce and interaction between our two countries.
I also look forward, Mr. President, to talking about shared security concerns in the region, and we are so grateful for Brazil’s strong leadership in confronting the crisis in Venezuela. I look forward to your counsel in that and in identifying ways that we can continue to come alongside the suffering people of Venezuela, many tens of thousands of which have fled here to Brazil. The United States has been proud to provide support for (inaudible) those efforts. My wife Karen and I will be meeting with those migrants tomorrow, here in Brazil. But just rest assured that we stand firmly with you and with countries across our hemisphere in taking every effort to see democracy restored in Venezuela.
I know there are others (inaudible) that we’ll discuss. I look very much forward to that. But they will all be conversations among friends. Because the bonds between Brazil and the United States are bonds of friendship and shared values.
And, Mr. President, I thank you. I thank you for the warm hospitality and the opportunity to build on this strategic partnership.
PRESIDENT TEMER: (Speaks in Portuguese.) (No translation provided.)
END
