Netanyahu set for first trip to Brazil
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to head Thursday on the first trip by an Israeli premier to Brazil, where he will attend the inauguration of incoming president Jair Bolsonaro.
Netanyahu will also hold talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of the Jan 1 inauguration in Brasilia, an Israeli official told AFP.
Netanyahu is due to meet Bolsonaro yesterday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, the official said on condition of anonymity.
“This visit to the biggest country in Latin America will strengthen trade and economic ties between the two countries,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
He will also hold talks with the presidents of Chile and Honduras while there, among other officials, and meet with members of the Jewish community and a proIsrael Christian group.
He will fly back after the inauguration in the early hours of Jan 2, the official said.
Bolsonaro has said he wants to follow in the footsteps of United States President Donald Trump and move his country’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu welcomed the announcement and called it ‘historic’ – though Bolsonaro later backtracked by saying ‘it hasn’t been decided yet’.
Doing so would please his evangelical Christian support base, but would run the risk of provoking commercial retaliation from Arab states, some of which are major importers of Brazilian meat. — AFP