Telegram to the President of Brazil on the Draft of the General Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology between Brazil and West Germany

Exposição de Motivos

CONFIDENTIAL                                                                  2 April 1969

APP/AEOc/AOI/DC/56/550.5(81a)

To His Excellency

Marshall Arthur da Costa e Silva

President of the Republic

Mr. President,

I have the honor to submit to Your Excellency the annexed draft General Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology to eventually be signed between Brazil and the Federal Republic of Germany.

2.   The idea of the signature of a General Agreement on cooperation for peaceful purposes between the two countries stemmed from the conversations held in our country on the occasion of the visit of the Minister of External relations of the Federal republic of Germany to Brazil, in October 1968, and from the understandings at the Federal republic of Germany by the Minister of Mines and Energy, then Colonel José da Costa Cavalcanti, at the end of last year.

3. The text of the draft Agreement, as it now stands, results from the studies by an Inter-ministerial Working Group — in which representatives of the Ministries of the Navy, the Air Force, Mines and Energy, the National Research Council and the National Nuclear Energy Commission.

4.  The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany presented a basic draft for the Agreement, to which the Inter-ministerial Working Group introduced some changes, turning it into a Brazilian counter proposal, already accepted, in principle, by the German authorities charged with the negotiation of the General Agreement, during the conversations that took place on the occasion of the recent visit to Brazil of the mission headed by His Excellency Doctor Gerhrard Stoltenberger, Minister of Scientific Research of that country. The Minister of Mines and Energy, Professor Dias Leite, and the Presidents of the National Research Council and of the National Nuclear Energy Commission participated in these negotiations.

5.  The General Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology now under examination is a framework instrument to be implemented through special conventions in all fields where there is a mutual interest, especially nuclear energy, aeronautical and space activities, oceanography, electronic data computing e scientific documentation. It provides for the realization of the cooperation to be established by means of exchange of scientific and technological personnel, exchange of information and the simultaneous, joint or articulated of programs or projects of scientific and technological research.

6. The special conventions envisaged by the General Agreement shall be negotiated by the specialized organs of each government, designated in each case by the respective Ministries of External Relations and shall enter into force, whenever necessary, through Agreement by exchange of Notes. In order to ensure the correct implementation of the General Agreement and of the special conventions provided for therein a Joint German-Brazilian Commission shall be appointed. The Commission may designate expert groups for the examination of special issues.     

7. According to the General Agreement, the property of the results of scientific and technological research held together belongs to both countries. Divergencies that may arise about the interpretation and application of the Agreement shall be resolved, whenever possible, by the governments of the Federal republic of Germany and of Brazil. In the case that a divergence cannot be resolved by direct negotiation, the interested party may request to the other the constitution of an arbitration court.

9.    Since the signature of the Agreement is in principle foreseen for the end of May in the current year, on the occasion of my trip to the Federal Republic of Germany in retribution to the visit of Minister Willy Brandt to Brazil, may I suggest to Your Excellency that the draft be examined forthwith in the aspects that might have an implication for national security. In order to facilitate the examination of the General Agreement, I have annexed copies of the German proposal for the Agreement and the complete text of the Joint Communiqué that resulted from the conversations between the Minister of Scientific Research of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Ministers of External Relations and of Mines and Energy during the working meetings held on the 28th of March, at Itamaraty.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew the assurances of my deepest respect.

(Signed)  José de Magalhães Pinto

               Minister of External Relations