Brazil not our 'El Dorado'

It is absurd to think that this growing middle-class 'are crying out for what we (Ireland) want to export'. Brazil's growing middle-class are being catered for by multinationals who provide automobiles, consumer goods and hygiene products etc. Ireland is not a major manufacturing country and has little to offer Brazil and the Irish Embassy in Brasilia promotes cultural and educational events as Brazilians are much taken with Ireland's musical and literary heritage.

However, the most ridiculous suggestion of Mr Coleman's was a 'Dublin-Brazil-Lisbon axis of diplomatic and economic relations'. This betrays almost total ignorance of Brazil's distinguished Ministry of Foreign Relations founded in 1822 and called 'Itamaraty' after the building in Rio which housed the ministry until its transfer to Brasilia.

Brazil severed its ties with Portugal in 1822 in order to achieve independence and there is a long tradition of mistrust between the two countries. Mr Coleman thinks that 'a reopened embassy at the Vatican' will work a magic wand of diplomacy and Ireland will be feted at Brasilia etc. Itamaraty is too pragmatic an institution to get involved in any axis of diplomacy which would dilute its valued independent role in international affairs.

Brazilians treat Irish people as celebrities and greet them with warmth and hospitality. My 10 years in Sao Paulo were very fruitful and I still keep in touch with the friends I made there. Brazil is not a country to be exploited like a latter-day 'El Dorado'. It is an emerging nation which will soon take a more active role in international affairs and can do so without interference from Ireland or any other nation.

Bernard O'Grady,

Muswell Hill, London