Secretary General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, met with the President of the Brazil-ASEAN Parliamentary Front during his ongoing working visit to Brazil.
The two dignitaries discussed ways to strengthen legislative and institutional cooperation between the bloc and one of its newest and most engaged dialogue partners.
The meeting is one of several high-level engagements on Kao’s Brazil itinerary, which includes sessions with the country’s Foreign Minister, Minister of Mines and Energy, Minister of Sports, and other senior officials, alongside a lecture on ASEAN regionalism at the University of Brasília.
The visit builds on a relationship that has accelerated sharply over the past year, from the establishment of the ASEAN-Brazil Sectoral Dialogue Partnership in 2022, to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s historic visit to the ASEAN Secretariat in October 2025, where he announced Brazil’s intent to pursue full ASEAN membership and became the first Brazilian head of state to attend an ASEAN Summit.
Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, on 18 August 2026, met with President of the Brazil–ASEAN Parliamentary Front, Hon. Waldemar Oliveira, on the sidelines of the 59th ASEAN Day Dinner Reception in Brasília, to explore avenues for deeper inter-parliamentary engagement… pic.twitter.com/nkekRqIWsu
— ASEAN (@ASEAN) August 19, 2026
The Brazil-ASEAN Parliamentary Front was launched in March 2025 to build legislative support for deeper ties between Brazil and Southeast Asia, with its leadership stating at the time that the group would work on legislative proposals to strengthen trade with ASEAN.
Parliamentary fronts of this kind play a distinct role in Brazil’s foreign policy architecture, mobilizing cross-party lawmakers to back diplomatic and economic initiatives that require legislative buy-in, making the group a useful channel for sustaining momentum on ASEAN engagement beyond the executive branch.
Brazil was ASEAN’s first South American sectoral dialogue partner, valued by the bloc for the link it offers to the Mercosur region as well as its expertise in agriculture, renewable energy, climate action and sustainable development.
Cooperation between the two sides is currently guided by the ASEAN-Brazil Practical Cooperation Areas 2024–2028 framework, which spans science, technology and innovation, education, energy, public health, food security, climate change and people-to-people exchanges.
Progress under that framework was most recently reviewed at the 4th ASEAN-Brazil Joint Sectoral Cooperation Committee meeting in Jakarta in December 2025.
Tuesday’s meeting reflects how quickly ASEAN-Brazil ties have moved from a sectoral dialogue partnership to sustained, multi-track engagement spanning the executive, ministerial and now parliamentary levels.
