Brazilian Foreign Policy Returned To Monroe Doctrine Of Alignment With US - Ex-President

PORTO ALEGRE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2019) The Brazilian foreign policy under incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro is in fact a return to the Doctrine Monroe of the country's alignment with the United States, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told Sputnik.

"What characterizes Brazil's foreign policy is, first, that it is not new, this is a policy of strict alignment with the United States, a kind of Brazilian return to the doctrine that the United States applied in the 19th century in Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine, or [viewing] Latin America as backyard of the United States," Rousseff said.

According to the former Brazilian president, at some moments of its history Brazil was able to overcome this policy, but the policy of Bolsonaro is another return to the doctrine.

"One can see submissive alignment [with the United States], and in some cases even contempt for the country's sovereignty," the ex-president noted.

Rousseff believes that such policy damages Brazilian relations with the international organizations that provide alternatives to the pro-Western political course.

"I think that BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] looks more like RICS [without Brazil] now, because Brazil has been left behind thanks to this absolutely conservative and US-oriented policy," the politician stressed.

Rousseff pointed out the need to develop Brazilian relations with other BRICS countries.

Rousseff was removed from office in August 2016 after the parliament accused her of misusing public funds at the request of then Vice President Michel Temer, who subsequently faced charges of corruption.