Senate committee approves new ambassadors to UK, WTO

Antonio Patriota, confirmed as Brazil’s next ambassador to the United Kingdom. Photo: Edilson Rodrigues/Agência Senado

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee has approved the nominations of six ambassadors, including Brazil’s new ambassadors to the United Kingdom, Israel, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). All appointees are career diplomats, and their names are expected to be confirmed in a floor vote soon.

Ambassador Antonio Patriota, who served as foreign minister from 2011 to 2013 during the Dilma Rousseff administration, was confirmed as Brazil’s next ambassador to the United Kingdom. He told senators that 2023 was “a historic year” in bilateral relations, given the unprecedented visit by a Brazilian president to the coronation of a British monarch during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s recent trip to London.

During that trip, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK would become a sponsor of the Amazon Fund — contributing GBP 80 million (USD 101 million) to the initiative, which promotes sustainable development and fights deforestation.

Mr. Patriota added that both Mr. Sunak and King Charles III intend to visit Brazil later this year. “This will not be a trivial fact,” he said, as the last visit of a British prime minister to Brazil came when Gordon Brown visited in 2009, when the Labour Party was still in power. Queen Elizabeth II visited Brazil only once, in 1968. Before his coronation, King Charles III visited Brazil four times between 1978 and 2009.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is set to visit Brasília next week for a meeting on priorities in the relationship between the two countries. Although Mr. Patriota did not mention it to senators, mining is a big part of the Brazil-UK bilateral relationship. Mining giants operating in Brazil with British capital include Anglo American (with headquarters in London), BHP Billiton (headquartered in Melbourne, Australia), and AngloGold Ashanti (headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa).

Ambassador Guilherme Patriota, Antonio’s brother, was approved as Brazil’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. He is currently Brazil’s consul general in Tokyo and served as a presidential adviser from 2010 to 2013, during the late Lula and early Dilma Rousseff administrations.

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee also approved the new heads of Brazil’s embassies in Israel, Peru, Greece, and the Organization of American States.