Dilma Rousseff's visit to AmericaOur friends in the SouthFonte: The EconomistApr 7th 2012, 14:52 by H.J.BRAZIL has probably never mattered more to America than it does now. America has probably never mattered less to Brazil. Not that relations are bad between the two countriesfar from it; they are increasingly cordial and productive. But America has finally, belatedly, woken up to the fact there is a vast, stable country to its south as well as its north; a country, moreover, with a fast-growing and voraciously consuming middle class that seems to offer salvation to American businesses struggling in a moribund domestic market. Brazil, meanwhile, neither needs loans from American-dominated global financial institutions, nor is it otherwise beholden to the country. The United States is no longer even its biggest trading partner. China took that spot in 2009.A more balanced relationship may be a more fruitful one too. Since Barack Obamas visit to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia last year, America has delighted Brazil by removing import tariffs on its ethanol and piloting a scheme to make it easier for Brazilians to get visastwo long-standing bugbears. Brazils president, Dilma Rousseff, makes a return visit to Washington in the coming week, and there is much to talk about still. What Brazil wants from America above all is endorsement for a seat on the UN Security Council. Britain has already backed its bid, and during his visit to Brazil Mr Obama made baby steps in the same direction, acknowledging Brazils aspiration, though stopping short of full support.That support is unlikely to be forthcoming, at least in the near future. Though Brazil is hardly geopolitically troublesome, its worldviewa hard-to-pin-down blend of pragmatism, relativism and a seemingly indiscriminate willingness to be friends with everyoneis unappealing to the United States. The previous president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was flexible enough to be my man to Barack Obama and our brother to Fidel Castro. In 2010 Lula stuck his neck out trying to co-broker, with Turkey, an anti-proliferation agreement with Irans president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That infuriated countries far more important to Brazils strategic interests, and left Lula looking silly when Mr Ahmedinejad made no concessions in return. Ms Rousseff has rowed back from that friendship, but it reinforced an impression that Brazil is unpredictable and naive.Mr Obama will surely want to know, too, what exactly Brazil means by its big new foreign-policy idea. That is to complement the UNs justification for intervention in another countrys affairs under the rubric Responsibility to Protect with Responsibility while Protecting after it has gone in. Since Brazil tends not to support going in in the first place, when would it want to see this new responsibility kick in? Even some experienced and sympathetic diplomatic observers in Brasilia say they have no idea what concrete difference this would make on the ground.For America, trade, not diplomacy, will surely be top of the agenda. Judging from the number of American investors turning up in Sao Paulo every week, Mr Obama must hear about the glowing opportunities Brazil presents in just about every time he meets