Presidents of Israel and Brazil Stress Friendship in Joint Statement

Israel’s President Zalman Shazar and Gen. Humberto Castelo Branco, President of Brazil, agreed here tonight to continue the commercial, cultural and technical-aid agreements already in effect between their countries, expressing the confidence that those pacts “will lead to lasting, mutual benefits” for both lands.

These affirmations were among the final results of President Shazar’s nine-day visit here. The points were emphasized in a joint communique issued by the two Presidents tonight, prior to Mr. Shazar’s scheduled departure tomorrow for the United States. In the U.S.A., the Israeli chief of state will visit New York’s Jewish community, will be honored by the New York Mayor and at a formal luncheon at the United Nations, and will go to Washington, where he will be an overnight guest of President Johnson.

The joint Brazilian-Israeli communique closed with an announcement that President Shazar’s visit “has given both Presidents the opportunity to underscore the friendly relations between Brazil and Israel.” It noted that a cultural exchange agreement signed in 1959 made possible “fruitful exchanges and information” in the fields of art and science, while a technical cooperation pact agreed to in 1962 gave Israeli technicians an opportunity of “contributing toward improvements in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast earth.” Development of further measures for the increase of commercial trade between Brazil and Israel was set as a goal in another point in the communique.

Both presidents agreed in the communique that Brazil and Israel attach great importance to the role of the United Nations “in safeguarding world peace and, in particular, the principles of the U.N. Charter relating to the territorial integrity and political independence of all nations, as well as the obligation which rests upon them to solve all disputes by peaceful means such as direct negotiations.”