ABSTRACT
Brazil is the Third World country with which the Federal Republic of Germany maintains the closest relations. Brazil considers itself to be a "superpower-in-waiting" and acts as a link between the interests of the First and Third Worlds. Brazil is the Federal Republic's most important Third World economic partner, even with the continuous oil-price hikes that have increased the value of Germany's trade with oil-rich Third World countries. The nuclear treaty of 1975 between the Federal Republic and Brazil paved the way for the most extensive and advanced technology transfer between an industrialized nation and a Third World country to date. One of the major problems in relations with Third World countries has been how to establish a confidential working relationship with and include the ideas of the counterelites—that is, these countries' governments of the future—in the bilateral relations.
