Brasília, June 22, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met yesterday (21) in São Paulo with the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe. Their agenda included trade issues, with an eye to greater integration between the two countries.

According to the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, Colombia deeply desires to increase its exports to Brazil. The Minister emphasized that trade between the two countries is unbalanced at present, since for every US$ 7 that Brazil exports to Colombia, Colombia exports only US$ 1 to Brazil.

Besides the major items of bilateral trade, the meeting also dealt with questions related to regional defense and security. The Brazilian Minister of Defense, José Viegas Filho, affirmed that the understanding between the two countries is very good, when it comes to borders and governmental relations, but it is necessary to deal with matters such as the downing of aircraft.

"We need to dovetail our procedures so that we can exchange information and uphold the security of our joint airspace," Viegas said.

Colombia already has regulations for downing aircraft, but Brazil's legislation in this area dates from 1998 and needs to be complemented. Currently, for an aircraft to be considered hostile and be shot down in Brazilian airspace, it has to commit a series of eight or nine violations, systematically and successively. According to Viegas, the legislation should be updated by an executive decree that is now in the preparatory stage.

Translator: David Silberstein