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BILATERAL TIES
Presidential Inauguration by Carlos Brian Pheysey
H.E. Minister Maliki Bin Osman attends the ceremony in Brasília
Brazil turned a new page in
January 2019 when newly-
elected President Jair Mes-
sias Bolsonaro took office, in a cer-
emony marked by due pomp and
the decisive cheering of one hun-
dred thousand Brazilians at the na-
tion’s capital, Brasília. Dignitaries
from other nations were present
in a show of support and respect
for another success of Brazilian
democracy.
Among those present was H.
E. Dr. Mohamad Maliki bin Osman,
a Senior Minister of State for De-
fence and also for Foreign Affairs.
Singapore selected this luminary
from its Cabinet in view of the strength of
the relations between both nations, be it
in trade, investment and other spheres of
bilateral interaction. On a positive note,
his visit to the Presidential event marked
the highest-ranking Asian presence at
the occasion, an honour indeed for Brazil.
Just slightly over a year back, in late
December 2017, Brazil’s Inland Revenue
had removed Singapore from its list of
“tax havens”, thus easing the matter of
taxation, remittances and investment be-
tween these two countries and culminat-
ing thence in mid-2018 in the signing of
an Agreement for the Avoidance of Dou-
ble Taxation (ADT). Hopefully, the ongoing
negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement
(FTA) between Singapore and the Merco-
sul bloc of several South American na-
tions will bear fruit soon. One should also
recall that PM Lee Hsien Loong met in
late 2018 the then outgoing incumbent,
President Temer, during the G20 summit
in Argentina’s capital.
For a more in-depth usefulness of his
trip to the Presidential ceremony in Brazil
A people’s acclamation, outside the National Congress
(Top): Inaugurated: President Jair Mes- Osman, a Senior Minister of State
sias Bolsonaro. (Above): Aligning ties, with for Foreign Affairs and also for De-
Minister Ernesto Araújo (source: Dr Maliki’s fence, is also Mayor of the South
FB page) East District of Singapore. Born in
1965, he obtained a PhD in social
in January 2019, Minister Maliki bin Osman work. he has been Member of Par-
requested a meeting with his newly-cho- liament for the constituencies of
sen counterpart, Minister Ernesto Araújo, East Coast and also Sembawang.
who was to lead Brazil’s foreign policy During mid-decade years, he was
from then on. The two ministers touched also Minister of State for National
on the prospects for the expected FTA Development. Though being of
outlined above and also expressed hopes Malay ethnicity, he embraced the
that the ADT would be ratified by Brazil’s multiracial ethos of Singapore and
Congress at some point within 2019. learned to play guzheng, originally
a string instrument of the Chinese
By way of some background on the ethnic group.
two authorities, Dr. Mohamad Maliki bin
As for Minister Ernesto Araújo,
he is a career diplomat. Born in 1967, he
majored in linguistics and literature. Hav-
ing joined the foreign service, he acquired
expertise in Pan-American matters, from
advisory to Mercosul tariffs and frame-
works, to postings at both North Ameri-
can capitals, Ottawa and Washington.
Meeting of Minds
The meeting of minds between the two
Ministers laid the groundwork for other
meetings that involved the two nations
in 2019, particularly that between Brazil’s
Minister for the Economy, Paulo Guedes,
and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minis-
ter, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, on the
sidelines of the World Economic Forum
in Davos, Switzerland, later that same
month. That encounter and its delibera-
tions are outlined in another section of
this magazine’s edition. Suffice to say
that the Presidential inaguration and the
presence of Minister Maliki bin Osman in
early January 2019 kicked off an auspi-
cious year for the ties between Brazil
and Singapore.
It’s Time for Brazil in Singapore 2019 11