Defence, security, electricity generation and distribution, health and agricultural issues yesterday topped the meeting between Brazil and Nigeria in Abuja.

President Goodluck Jonathan and his Brazilian counterpart, Madam Dilma Rousseff who met at the presidential villa, Abuja signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up a bi-national commission to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.

President Jonathan and President Rousseff also agreed to promote training of military officers of both countries by encouraging Brazilian and Nigerian military officers to undertake programmes at their staff colleges.

The signing of the MoU on mechanism for strategic dialogue, which is a renewal of Nigeria and Brazil diplomatic ties first established in 1961, came on the heels of a one-day state visit by the Brazilian President to Nigeria after attending the 3rd Africa/South America summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Briefing State House correspondents after the closed-door meeting that lasted for over two hours, Jonathan and Rousseff noted that the MoU was informed by the need for further bilateral co-orperation between Brazil and Nigeria in the areas of defence, security, electricity generation and distribution, health and agricultural expansion.

According to President Jonathan, the MoU covered agriculture and food security, petroleum, power, bio-fuel, trade and investment, mining, education, aviation, infrastructure management, finance and culture.

He said: "These are areas we believe that if we work together we will use it to leverage on the economy of or people, improve the lot of unemployed young men and women. Brazil and Nigeria have been doing very well even before my self and Madam President. "Our past presidents- Chief OlusegunObasanjo and Inacio Lula Da Silva worked very hard. You cannot just bring Nigeria and Brazil together, but we think we can bring the two continents together in what we call Africa and South-America summit".

President Rousseff who added that both countries had continued to expand trade cooperation in the last few years with significant impact on the economies of the two nations, said in 2012 alone, trade exchange between Nigeria and Brazil grew to about $9billion.

"Our trade exchange have grown and for 2012, the figures have come to $9billion.We agreed that we must diversify and make it a more balance trade," the Brazilian president noted, adding that Petro Brass owned by the Brazilian government hadoperated in Nigeria in the past 14 years.