France and Brazil Set Meeting To Break Ice After Two-Year Spat
France and Brazil Set Meeting To Break Ice After Two-Year Spat
(Bloomberg) -- The foreign ministers of France and Brazil plan to meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Rome after two years of frosty ties, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Jean-Yves Le Drian and Carlos Franca will hold talks on Sunday, the people said, asking not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. A French official said the meeting would be a simple courtesy visit.
The foreign ministries of France and Brazil didn’t respond to requests for comment.
While France and Brazil traditionally enjoyed strong business and military ties, relations soured in July 2019 when President Jair Bolsonaro unexpectedly canceled a meeting in Brasilia with Le Drian in favor of having his hair cut during a Facebook Live broadcast.
The following month, on the eve of hosting a Group of Seven summit, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his concern about fires burning in the Amazon forest and called for an international response, prompting an angry reaction from Bolsonaro over what he considered an infringement on Brazilian sovereignty.
The tensions turned personal when Bolsonaro retweeted a sarcastic social media comment that mocked French First Lady Brigitte Macron’s appearance. Macron denounced the comment as “extraordinarily disrespectful to my wife” and added he hoped the Brazilian people would soon have a president worthy of them.
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