Features of Foreign Trade Cooperation between Russia and Brazil in the 21st Century

The speech covers the issue of Russian-Brazilian bilateral relations, in particular, the foreign trade cooperation between the two states. It starts with a brief history of bilateral relations and proceeds with analyzing the most important indicators: the volume of the trade, the trade turnover, exports and imports. The author comes to a conclusion that with regard to Russia's role as a trading partner of Brazil, in economic terms, it is a market for exports rather than a source of imports. Still, trade relations with the Russian Federation, despite the fact that the country is not among the main trading partners, are of great importance for Brazil and are currently developing at a very dynamic pace. Of all Latin American countries, Brazil is the most important for Russia's foreign trade, accounting for approximately 30% of all Russian trade with the countries of the region. The most notable area of Russia's cooperation with Brazil is the energy sector. Domestic businesses are most active in this area. There also are great opportunities for the provision of services and equipment for oil exploration, optimization of production and refining, design and construction of oil and gas storage facilities and pipelines. The aviation sector and supplies of Russian helicopters to the Brazilian market are promising. Another important field of cooperation is high technology. Russian high-value-added products, mining equipment and machinery may be in demand in Brazil. Infrastructure development, particularly rail transport, is likely to be a promising area for expanding Russian exports. However, despite the established partnership between Brazil and Russia, there is a number of factors that have negative impact on the further development of bilateral relations. Russia is interested in expanding its economic presence in the region because at the moment we see that potential is not being realized at all. The perception of Brazil in Russia and Russia in Brazil as a remote and "exotic" region, which is traditionally not at the top of the list of promising countries for bilateral cooperation, needs to be reversed