The White House has announced that Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has postponed her upcoming visit over concerns about the National Security Agency’s surveillance of her and her administration. Rousseff was scheduled to visit the White House on October 23.
“The president has said that he understands and regrets the concerns disclosures of alleged U.S. intelligence activities have generated in Brazil,” the White House said in part in a statement. President Obama is looking forward to whenever Rousseff’s visit is rescheduled, the statement continued, and it “should not be overshadowed by a single bilateral issue, no matter how important or challenging the issue may be.”
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Rousseff was “furious” over revelations that the NSA monitored her personal communications and called it a “major, major crisis.” She quickly postponed a preparatory visit to Washington by her aides, and threatened to cancel the entire trip unless the Obama administration issued an apology.