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Brazil’s Leader Postpones State Visit to U.S. Brazil’s Leader Postpones State Visit to Washington Over Spying
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Brazil’s president has postponed her planned state visit to the United States next month because of anger at the revelations that the National Security Agency had intercepted her private communications. RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, said Tuesday that she was postponing a state visit to the United States, delivering a sharp rebuke to the Obama administration over revelations that the National Security Agency had spied on her, her inner circle of top aides and Brazil’s largest company, the oil giant Petrobras.
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil had been scheduled to arrive in Washington on Oct. 23 for the first state visit of Mr. Obama’s second term. But she has been angered by reports of the spying in recent weeks. The move by Ms. Rousseff showed how the disclosures of United States surveillance practices by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, were aggravating Washington’s ties with an array of nations around the world, including European allies like Germany.
The White House said in a statement on Tuesday that the “broad relationship” between Brazil and the United States “should not be overshadowed by a single bilateral issue, no matter how important or challenging the issue may be.” For that reason, the statement said, Mr. Obama and Ms. Rousseff had agreed to postpone the visit indefinitely. In the case of Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation, the move to effectively suspend a state visit to the United States — a remarkably rare decision in the annals of diplomacy — threatens to unravel years of Washington’s efforts to recognize Brazil’s rising profile in the developing world and blunt the growing influence of China, which has surpassed the United States as Brazil’s top trading partner.
The two leaders discussed the N.S.A. revelations during the Group of 20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, earlier this month. They spoke again Monday night about the state visit, the White House said, adding that Mr. Obama expressed regret over the spying on an ally. President Obama spoke with Ms. Rousseff by telephone for 20 minutes on Monday night, but failed to persuade her to go through with the visit, which had been scheduled for late October. A series of news reports about N.S.A. spying in Brazil had clearly irked Ms. Rousseff in recent weeks, and her government demanded a full explanation from Washington.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had called Ms. Rousseff to try to ease tension over the spying revelations and Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Brazil to discuss the matter, with officials in Brasília publicly criticizing his explanations as unsatisfactory. Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said last week that reports about the N.S.A.’s activities in Brazil had raised “legitimate questions,” a statement falling short of Brazil’s expectations.
“Washington doesn’t do contrition very well,” said Julia E. Sweig, director for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, emphasizing how the relationship between United States and Brazil was still not strong enough to withstand the turmoil over the N.S.A. revelations.
The White House insisted in a statement on Tuesday that the “broad relationship” between Brazil and the United States “should not be overshadowed by a single bilateral issue, no matter how important or challenging the issue may be.” For that reason, the statement said, Mr. Obama and Ms. Rousseff had agreed to postpone the visit to an undetermined time.
In addition to their telephone conversation on Monday night, Ms. Rousseff and Mr. Obama had discussed the N.S.A. revelations during the meeting of Group of 20 leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia, this month, the White House pointed out.
“The president has said that he understands and regrets the concerns that disclosures of alleged U.S. intelligence activities have generated in Brazil and made clear that he is committed to working together with President Rousseff and her government in diplomatic channels to move beyond this issue as a source of tension in our bilateral relationship,” the statement said.“The president has said that he understands and regrets the concerns that disclosures of alleged U.S. intelligence activities have generated in Brazil and made clear that he is committed to working together with President Rousseff and her government in diplomatic channels to move beyond this issue as a source of tension in our bilateral relationship,” the statement said.
The White House also said that a broad review of American intelligence activities was under way and that the two leaders agreed to put the visit off until after the spying issue is resolved. The White House also said that a broad review of the American intelligence posture would take several months to complete, and that the leaders agreed that the visit should be delayed until after the spying issue was resolved.
Meanwhile, while commerce is still thriving between Brazil and the United States, business leaders and trade experts in both countries were trying to gauge how putting the visit off would affect efforts to bolster ties.
“It’s simply disappointing to see this turn in policy,” said Christian Lohbauer, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo who has represented Brazilian exporters of orange juice. “The diplomatic agenda should be focused on what’s practical for both nations, which in Brazil’s case is developing its economy through strong relations with a country like the United States.”
But even before Ms. Rousseff’s announcement, expectations were low for the concrete results of the state visit. No major trade agreement was anticipated, and Washington has refrained from explicitly supporting Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, as Mr. Obama did for India in 2010.
While Ms. Rousseff stands to gain ahead of 2014 elections among some elements within the governing Workers Party by meeting their demands for a strong response on the spying issue, political analysts here pointed out that Brazil’s move was still relatively mild, and avoided the expulsion of United States diplomats or limits on investments by American companies.
“It’s a friction point in relations but not a breakup,” said Geraldo Zahran, a specialist on Brazil’s ties with the United States at Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo.
Still, others assailed Washington’s response to Brazil in the face of growing ire over the espionage revelations, reports of which have been televised nationally for weeks As resentment festered in Brasília, the Obama administration seemed to put the tension with Brazil on the back burner, focusing on other issues like Syria.
“The inaction in the face of such an overreach has proved costly,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy group, about the administration’s efforts to offset the damage caused by the spying. “Washington would be wise to reflect on what this means for its most crucial diplomatic efforts in this hemisphere.”

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.