BRAZIL BEGINS TO TAKE ROLE ON THE WORLD STAGE

BRASILIA -- When Henry A. Kissinger visited here as secretary of state
in the mid-1970's, his Brazilian counterpart, Antonio Azeredo da
Silveira, made a point of escorting him on a tour of Itamaraty Palace,
the ultramodern glass and marble headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign
Ministry.

Afterward, Mr. Silveira asked his American guest for his impressions.

Grinning with amusement, Mr. Silveira later recalled in an interview
Mr. Kissinger's reply: "It's a magnificent building, Antonio. Now all
you need is a foreign policy to go with it."

Nearly a quarter of a century later, the joke may finally be on the
United States. Today an increasingly confident and assertive Brazil is
emerging as both an American partner and rival in Latin America,
steering its own course on political and economic matters and, in the
words of Anthony S. Harrington, the United States ambassador here,
"stepping out onto the world stage in a way that it never has before."

At the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle last fall, for
instance, it was Brazil that led the bloc of developing nations in
criticizing Washington's position. And on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Brazil
is sponsoring a first meeting of South American presidents here that is
being seen as both a coming-out party and an effort to forge a unified
regional front in negotiations with the United States about a
hemispheric free-trade zone.

"It is clearly the judgment that the continent is now ready for Brazil
to assume a broader, more dynamic leadership role in regional affairs,"
Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere Program at Johns
Hopkins University, said in referring to Brazilian leaders in an essay
published this month by the Web site InfoBrazil.com. "And it is now
understood in South America that the regional card to play is one that
is led from Brasilia."

As the largest country in Latin America but separated from its Spanish-
speaking neighbors by its Portuguese language, Brazil has traditionally
conducted a foreign policy that is pragmatic but that only recently
began to emphasize relations within the region. By habit, said Helio
Jaguaribe of the Institute for Political and Social Studies in Rio de
Janeiro, "Brazil seeks cooperation," recognizing that "whether or not
you like the United States, you have to live with it."

For that reason the United States has welcomed the summit meeting, even
though one of its goals is to blunt Washington's strategy in trade
talks of favoring bilateral agreements in which it has the upper hand.

"A South America assembled into a single bloc would add up to more than
the sum of its parts and therefore be in a position to insist on more
balanced negotiations with the North American trading bloc," said
Gilberto Dupas of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University
of Sao Paulo.

If regional integration is to take place, the State Department would
clearly prefer to see Brazil lead it rather than Venezuela's firebrand
president, Hugo Chavez, whose calls for South American unity contain
authoritarian and markedly anti-American elements. Indeed, given its
sheer size and the relative maturity and health of its democracy
compared with some of its more troubled neighbors, Brazil may be best
positioned to lead such a effort.

"I think President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is looked upon as somewhat
of an uncle by some of the other leaders in South America," Ambassador
Harrington said in an interview. "His orientation and goal is to steer
onto the path of democracy a few countries that may be a little more
challenged there."

The United States has recognized the benefits of Brazil's playing such
a role since the early 1980's, when Brazilian diplomacy guided a
leftist government in Suriname away from a flirtation with Cuba. More
recently, Brazil helped negotiate the end to a potentially explosive
border dispute between Ecuador and Peru, and has used its influence to
head off potential military coups in Paraguay.

President Clinton praised Brazil and Argentina during a visit to
nuclear-armed India and Pakistan this spring as examples of nations
that have successfully negotiated an end to dangerous nuclear programs
and even become allies. Bitter military rivals for most of their
history, Brazil and Argentina have in the last decade become partners
in the Mercosul trade bloc and are now talking about adopting a common
currency.

The United States and Brazil have disagreed recently, however, over the
suspect presidential election in Peru that resulted in a third term for
Alberto K. Fujimori. The United States was pushing behind the scenes
for sanctions, and American officials have complained privately that
Brazil was undermining their efforts to nudge the Organization of
American States into a tough collective stance.

"Washington should have seen that one coming," said David Fleischer, a
professor of political science at the National University of Brasilia.
"If you want to bring the Andean nations into Mercosul, as Brazil
apparently does, you are not going to want to slap them in the face."

But it is the crisis in Colombia, with which Brazil shares a 1,000-mile
border, that seems to have the most potential to become a source of
disagreement with Washington. The Clinton administration's plan to
supply $1.3 billion in military and economic aid to President Andres
Pastrana of Colombia has been widely criticized in the Brazilian press
and Congress, and official support for the American-backed effort
appears lukewarm, at best.

"Brazil certainly has concerns there could be a spillover onto our
side, whether of coca cultivation and trafficking or of combat between
the Colombian Army and guerrillas," Brazil's foreign minister, Luiz
Felipe Lampreia, said in an interview here. The American aid plan to
Colombia, he added, represents "a stepping up of the level of conflict"
that "could generate this effect."

At a joint news conference with Secretary of State Madeleine K.
Albright during her South American tour this month, Mr. Lampreia's
remarks were even stronger. "We do not have the same degree of
commitment," he said of the plan in Colombia, with Dr. Albright by his
side. "We have no intention of participating in any common or concerted
international action."

Another point of potential tension is the hemispheric free-trade talks,
which are supposed to reach an agreement by 2005.

Brazil and the United States are the co-chairmen, but after six years
of negotiations, it is clear that the two nations have very different
views, with some officials in Washington describing Brazil's position
as "obstructionist."

Brazil, in turn, complains of protectionist barriers and subsidies in
the United States that discriminate against Brazilian products ranging
from steel and textiles to sugar and orange juice.

Speaking of access to the American market, Mr. Lampreia said, "What is
essential for us is a free-trade agreement completely devoid of tariff
and nontariff barriers so that we can have unobstructed access."