Secretary-General in Brazil's Ministry of External Affairs, Ambassador Osmar Vladimir Chohfi feels that the growth of communities of Brazilian immigrants in neighbouring countries is a positive factor in the development of these states.

The problem of people moving across borders without the necessary permission, he said, was common to neighbouring countries. And it was not only one of controlling outflow of people from Brazil, but one in which "we in Brazil cannot say that we will not accept other peoples. That would be undemocratic."

Responding to a number of questions on a range of issues at the end of a recent lecture on Brazil's foreign policy at the Foreign Service Institute, New Garden Street, Chohfi said that the most important thing was to legalise the emigrants' status to ensure stability in their life. He said it was impossible to control the flow of people across borders.

These problems and issues should first be solved through constructive and cooperative approaches, he said, stating that Brazil wanted to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

He acknowledged it was true that Brazilians had emigrated to neighouring countries including Paraguay, Bolivia, French Guiana and Suriname -- where ten per cent of the population comprised Brazilian immigrants -- and Guyana, which has a small Brazilian population. The majority of Brazilians living in these countries, he said were "very hardworking and honest people. They come because the market requires their presence. We are all market economies. We would not come if there were no possibilities."

He noted that there were people in all communities who did illicit or illegal things and this was not true for Brazilians only, but it was especially true for many recently established communities.

The illegal migration of Brazilians is a big issue in Guyana particularly as the so-called garimpeiros have crowded lucrative mining areas and contributed to environmental pollution and a breakdown of law and order. Estimates of the numbers have Brazilians in the interior have ranged as high as 10,000. The government last year began the process of regularising these miners. Interior residents have meanwhile credited the residents with introducing new mining technology that has enabled increased diamond recovery.

During his recent visit to Guyana, Chohfi said he had been talking to the relevant authorities about Brazil's desire to cooperate at the regional level to settle the many common problems both countries were experiencing, such as illicit transnational activities. In today's world, he said, it was impossible to act only at the national level on criminal matters which he felt needed a cooperative approach and suggested the revitalisation of the drug trafficking agreement Guyana and Brazil signed in 1988.

He feels that provinces in northern Brazil, Guyana and Suriname could adopt a regional, sub-regional or hemispheric concept in resolving common problems. This should include sharing of information and taking action against illicit transnational activities.

Apart from drug trafficking, Chohfi said, on his visits he has offered neighbouring countries, including Guyana, the opportunity to learn from Brazil's "challenging" developmental projects in the Amazon region, which covers some 500,000 square kilometres. This would include the monitoring of natural resources and problems related to climate change among other technical areas.

Asked about the Decade of the Rio Summit Conference (the world conference on sustainable development) to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa later this year, Chohfi said that his country was deeply involved in preparations. He expressed the hope that in Johannesburg "we can show some positive results of all the actions taken ten years after the Rio Summit (in Brazil). The prospects are not bright in some areas but it involves an incremental process."

Coming out of the Rio Summit, he said, was an awareness of global warming and environmental matters, which have developed since. Brazil was also in the process of consultation with South Africa and some other countries, playing an important role in the presentations at the upcoming summit. Brazil, he said also hoped that Johannesburg would represent an important step in the development of a more pro-active approach to environmental matters in general.

Noting that Brazil attached great importance to environmental matters as part of the country's foreign policy, he said that at present, its congress was in the process of approving the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases. Brazil, he said, felt that all countries should try to ratify and adhere to the principles of the protocol. The protocol has become increasingly controversial as the US has pulled out of it and is trying to woo key allies not to accede to it. In recent months, Canada, Australia and Japan have been targeted by the US. The European Union - a solid US ally - has taken a strong stance in support of the Kyoto Protocol.

With regard to mounting a challenge to the European Union sugar regime and the effect it would have on Guyana, the Caribbean and developing countries' exports, Chohfi said that Brazil was still studying what it was going to do as the matter was still being discussed with the federative government.

The country's problem, he said, was not with the Caribbean or with less developed countries that sold sugar to the European Union but it was with the European Union "re-exporting sugar with subsidies. We don't have any problem with other countries selling sugar to the EU. Our problem is that of the subsidy export policy of the EU." This, he said, should not be a fight for Brazil only but for other agriculturally competitive countries.

Noting that Europe was attaching "great priority" to the integration of Eastern Europe, Chohfi said, "it would be shortsighted from the European side not to look across the ocean towards us." It would be "very important for Europe to hold this hand we are extending to them from the region."