Brazil's new President Dilma Rousseff and UN chief Ban Ki-moon spoke by telephone on Monday about the UN Security Council -- a body on which Brazil has long tried to get a permanent seat.
"The UN secretary general called the president to congratulate her on her inauguration, and they spoke for 15 minutes about current events, especially the Security Council," Rousseff's advisor on international affairs, Marco Aurelio Garcia, told reporters.
Garcia pointed out that Brazil is a temporary member of the council and would hold its rotating presidency in February.
He said Rousseff told Ban that Brazil intended to start discussion in the council on "security and development, an issue that... occupies a big place in Brazil's foreign policy in the past few years."
Brazil was seeking to "associate the idea of security with that of development," he said, saying that while both areas had their "particularities," the two issues were entwined.
Rousseff and Ban also discussed Brazil's participation in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, with the president saying her country would continue to contribute to the earthquake-devastated Caribbean nation.
The UN chief's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, told AFP that Ban pledged to work closely with Brazil "on key global challenges including climate change, the Millennium Development Goals and preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Earth Summit)."
{{/usCountry}}The UN chief's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, told AFP that Ban pledged to work closely with Brazil "on key global challenges including climate change, the Millennium Development Goals and preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Earth Summit)."
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