Cablegate: Brazil Demarche On U/S Burns & U/S Joseph Sfrc Testimony Regarding India Civil Nuclear Initiative

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 003125

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2015
TAGS: KNNP PARM PREL IN BR US
SUBJECT: BRAZIL DEMARCHE ON U/S BURNS & U/S JOSEPH SFRC TESTIMONY REGARDING INDIA CIVIL NUCLEAR INITIATIVE REF: STATE 203310 Classified By: PolCouns Dennis Hearne, 1.4 (B) & (D)

1. (C) Embassy presented the text of the testimonies of U/S Burns and Joseph November 28 to Santiago Mourao, Director of the Foreign Ministry's Disarmament and Sensitive Technologies Division. Mourao said he had seen references to the testimony of the two Undersecretaries and looked forward to fully reviewing the texts. He reviewed the Brazilian position on the issue, noting that Brazil received the information on the civil nuclear cooperation with some perplexity. While the GOB understood the U.S. desire to build a strategic partnership with India, Brazil had actually been pursuing such a partnership with India (and South Africa) without making any concessions on the disarmament front. Brazil, he said, does not recognize a separation of disarmament from non-proliferation and therefore does not understand how one can make concessions on disarmament in order to gain progress on non-proliferation.

2. (C) Mourao added that there was an internal Brazilian dimension to the issue: Brazil's decision to accede to the NPT had been a difficult one. That difficulty is being relived as the GOB considers the issue of the Additional Protocol. From the perspective of this issue, the U.S.-India announcement has not helped matters.

3. (C) Finally, he said, because of Brazil's strategic relationship with India, this initiative has put Brazil in an awkward position. In order not to strain relations with India, Brazil has refrained from saying much publicly on the issue.

4. (C) Noting that Brazil will assume the Chair of the Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG) next year, Mourao said Brazil had been pleased to note that the U.S. was not asking the NSG to take any action in regard to the India initiative until India had taken the necessary actions to move forward civil nuclear cooperation with the U.S. He said some of the necessary actions will not be easy for the Indians to take, so he will be interested to see how the situation develops.

LINEHAN

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