The White House congratulated Dilma Rousseff on her re-election as Brazil’s president, pledging to continue efforts to boost bilateral relationship.
Spokesman Josh Earnest called Brazil “an important partner” for the US, saying, “We are committed to continuing to work with President Rousseff to strengthen our bilateral relationship.”
He said in a statement that President Barack Obama “looks forward to” calling Rousseff in the coming days to offer his personal congratulations and discuss increased cooperation on issues like security, human rights, education, energy and trade, Xinhua reported.
Rousseff was reelected Sunday by garnering 51.62 percent of the votes in the run-off election.
Bilateral ties were hurt when Rousseff canceled a planned trip to the US in late October, 2013, in protest against Washington’s spying on her and her advisors’ private communications.
Rousseff garnered 51.62 percent of the votes, while conservative opposition candidate Aecio Neves of the Social Democratic party (PSDB) got 48.38 percent, with 99.77 percent of the votes counted, Xinhua reported.
Rousseff, 66, won what was considered as Brazil’s most bitterly contested presidential race in two decades, as an economic slowdown gave the pro-business PSDB an opportunity to make headway in its campaign.
Acknowledging the economic troubles, Rousseff’s campaign promised “a new cycle of development (that will be) more productive and competitive” for Latin America’s biggest economy.
Her win means another four years in power for the Workers’ Party, which has held power for 12 years and leveraged an economic growth to expand social welfare programmes and lift more than 40 million people from poverty in Latin America’s most populous country