A Joint Communiqué about West German Minister Gerhard Stoltenberger's Visit to Brazil

JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ

At the invitation of the Brazilian government, the Minister of Scientific Research of the Federal Republic of Germany, Doctor Gerhard Stoltenberger, visited Brazil between 25 and 29 March of the current year.

Minister Stoltenberger was accompanied by Mr. Hans-Hilger Hausnchild, Head of the Sub-department for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Scientific Research; Professor Doctor Alfred Boettcher, Scientific Director of the Jülich Center for Nuclear Research; and Mr. Horst Laessinger, Press Assistant.

After visiting the Institute of Atomic Energy in São Paulo, at the Technical Aeronautical Center, in São José dos Campos (SP), Brasília and the Três Marias Power Plant of Centrais Elétricas de Minas Gerais (CEMIG), Minister Gerhard Stoltenberger held long conversations at the Ministry of External relations with the Minister of External Relations, Congressman José de Magalhães Pinto, and with the Minister of Mines and Energy, Professor Antônio Dias Leite.  The two Brazilian Ministers were assisted by the President of the National research Council, Doctor Antônio Moreira Couceiro, the President of the National Nuclear Energy Commission, Professor Uriel da Costa Ribeiro, the Assistant General Secretary for Political Planning of the Ministry of External Relations, Minister Paulo Nogueira Batista, Admiral Paulo de Castro Moreira da Silva, Director of the Foundation for the Study of the Sea Bottom and Colonel (Air Force)  Paulo Delvaux, Director of the Institute of Research and Development of the Technical Aeronautics Center.

The result of the conversations was a basic understanding about the General Agreement of Scientific and Technological Cooperation to be concluded shortly between the Federal Republic of Germany and Brazil, according to the Joint Communiqué issued on the occasion of the visit of Minister Willy Brandt.

The General Agreement is a framework instrument to be implemented through specific conventions on programs and projects mainly in the following areas: nuclear energy, space and aeronautical research, oceanography, scientific documentation and electronic data processing.

In order to speed up the preparation of these programs, a visit to Brazil of German missions in the fields of space-aeronautics and oceanographic was decided, following the model of the nuclear technical mission recently sent by the Federal republic of Germany.

It was decided the start of the carrying out of the following programs in the field of nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes: a) computerized methods for the optimization of the production of nuclear energy in the general context of the Brazilian energy program; b) prospection of uranium; c) fuel cycle and d) development of advanced reactors.

The interest of both parties in the negotiation of a supplementary convention of geological prospection within the framework of the Technical Cooperation Agreement in force between the two countries was also recorded.

The signature of the General Agreement of Scientific and Technological Cooperation should take place shortly in Bonn, on the occasion of the visit of the Minister of External Relations to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Rio de Janeiro, 28 March 1969.