Russia-Brazil: Brazil Interested In Joint Use Of Alkantari Launching Site

Brazilian president Fernando Enrique Cardoso has voiced his country's interest in the joint exploitation of the Alkantari launching site in northern Brazil. The president said this to journalists Tuesday upon the end of his meeting with speaker of the Russian federation council Sergei Mironov. However, he stressed, this will depend on whether respective agreements in Brazil's interests are signed. Brazil has also signed a memorandum on using Alkantari with Ukraine, said the president. Fernando Enrique Cardoso described Russo-Brazilian relations as very multilateral. The Brazilian head of state particularly emphasised cooperation in science and technology, in part, agreements on sharing data obtained with the help of Brazil's remote sounding satellites equipped with Russian instruments of high precision. Fernando Enrique Cardoso also noted Russia's assistance in developing Brazil's missile launcher. In turn, Sergei Mironov remarked that the talks had testified to a very high level of bilateral relations.