Brasília, September 18, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The position adopted by Brazil and the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held last weekend in Cancún, Mexico, received the support of Brazilian students. The two major organizations that represent Brazilian high school and university students - National Students' Union (UNE) and Brazilian Union of High School Students (Ubes) - delivered a letter on Wednesday to the Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, complimenting him on the way in which he has been conducting Brazil's foreign policy.

The students assert that they are pleased that the country has adopted independence and sovereignty to deal with important issues, which, until recently, were handled on the basis of "unilateralism, intolerance, militarism, threats, and arrogance."

The president of UNE, Gustavo Petta, underscored that the group of developing countries coordinated by Brazil at the Cancún meeting managed to show the developed countries that they have the strength to fight on behalf of their interests, especially in agricultural trade. "Brazil was able to organize an important bloc to resist all of this and to prevent education, health, and water from coming to be regarded as services to be sold by the WTO countries," he concluded.

The Minister thanked them for their homages and referred to important episodes in Brazilian history when students played an important role in struggles for the sake of change and popular awareness. As for the WTO meeting, he said that it represented the start of a new process in foreign policy. Uniting, around common interests, countries that contain over half of the world's population "was not a rhetorical task; it was a patient task," developed by Brazil, the Minister said.

In the letter signed by the student organizations, support is vouched for "the defense of Brazil's interests, peace, multilaterism, and solidary among nations." (DAS)