Brazil, Bolivia leaders to meet over bilateral trade, rail project

Bolivian President Evo Morales will meet his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff Tuesday to "re-launch their relations" and bolster bilateral trade two years after a diplomatic scuffle, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said.

During the meeting, the two leaders will discuss energy integration, water management, cooperation in preventing cross-border crime, and Bolivia's accession process in the Southern Common Market, a trade bloc composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Also on the agenda is a transcontinental rail project linking Brazil's Atlantic coast port of Santos with Peru's Pacific coast port of Ilo, which Bolivia wants to be part of.

The 3,360-km railway, which is expected to cost some 10 billion U.S. dollars, aims to create a shipping corridor that would make it easier and cheaper for Brazil and other countries in the region to export goods to Asia, especially China, the region's second-largest trade partner.

Bolivia wants the route to pass through its territory, starting from Puerto Suarez, passing cities of Santa Cruz, Montero and Bulo Bulo, and finally traversing the La Paz region before reaching Peru.

Brazil is Bolivia's main export destination and the second largest supplier of goods, with bilateral trade reaching 4 billion dollars in 2015.

"Brazil attaches geo-strategic importance to its ties with Bolivia, a country with which it shares its longest border," Brazil's Public Works Ministry said.

The meeting between the two leaders marks an end to a diplomatic scuffle sparked two years ago by the defection to Brazil of Bolivian right-wing opposition senator Roger Pinto, who was smuggled out of the country by the Brazilian embassy's former business attache Eduardo Saboia.

Brazil's Ambassador to Bolivia, Raymundo Santos, said the meeting will "relaunch the relations" between the two countries. Endi