On the afternoon of Friday, the 10th, Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Patriota, met the President of the Organising Committee for the Rio 2016™ Olympic and Paralympic Games, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, in the Committee’s headquarters in Cidade Nova neighbourhood. This was the first visit by a Minister of State to the Rio 2016™ headquarters.

Nuzman and Chief Executive Officer, Sidney Levy, together with the President of the Municipal Olympic Company (EOM in Portuguese), Maria Silvia Bastos, presented an update on the Games project to the Minister. Nuzman recalled one of Rio de Janeiro’s bid commitments: these are the Olympic and Paralympic Games of the entire South American continent. And Patriota reiterated the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ support to ensure the success of the Games.

“The meeting updated me on the Games construction works and projects”, Patriota said. “I am very proud of being the first Minister to visit the Organising Committee’s headquarters. I place the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Rio 2016™’s disposal. We are all together in this campaign to host the Games and I believe that Brazil as a whole will be able to show our efficiency to the world: the best we have to offer.”

The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the visa programme and the development of projects aimed at engaging international actors, spectators and the Brazilian community abroad with the Games.

At the end of the meeting, Nuzman offered a Rio 2016™ tie as a gift to the Minister and Patriota reciprocated with a Brazil picture book. The Minister also did a brief tour of the Organising Committee’s headquarters. “I’m experiencing now the same victory feeling I had during the bid for the Olympic Games”, said the Head of the Brazilian Diplomatic Corps.