Kenya
Brazil and Kenya
Brazil established diplomatic relations with Kenya soon after its independence, in 1963, opening a resident Embassy in Nairobi in 1967. After the visit of Chancellor Mário Gibson Barbosa, in 1972, the two countries signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement in 1973. In March 2005, then Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Celso Amorim, visited Kenya; On that occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultations was signed, with the aim of establishing institutional space for dialogue between the two countries. Also in 2005, a sports cooperation agreement and an agreement to establish the Brazil-Kenya Joint Commission were signed, whose first session was held that year in Brasília. In September 2006, the Kenyan Government decided to open a resident Embassy in Brasilia. The second session of the Joint Commission took place in 2008, in Nairobi, when an Agreement for the Exemption of Visas in Diplomatic, Official and Service Passports was signed (in force since August 2010) and two Complementary Adjustments to the Technical Cooperation Agreement signed in 1973, on projects in the areas of fighting HIV/AIDS and malaria.
The gradual deepening of bilateral relations was catalyzed by the carrying out of a presidential visit in July 2010, when Presidents Lula and Mwai Kibaki signed agreements in the areas of energy, education and carrying out activities remunerated by dependents of the diplomatic staff, as well as memoranda of understanding in cooperation between diplomatic academies and trade and investment promotion. The potential for cooperation between the two countries in the areas of agriculture and food security was highlighted at the time. In September of that year, then Kenyan Chancellor, Moses Wetang’ula, visited Brasília, where he signed an agreement on air services (with a view to establishing a direct flight between Nairobi and São Paulo) and an executive program for cultural cooperation. President Mwai Kibaki visited the country on the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held from June 20 to 22, 2012, when he met President Dilma Rousseff and representatives of the BNDES.