Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is in Washington. This is his first trip outside the country since taking office in January, apart from an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos. And his choice to prioritize the United States for this first trip is no coincidence. CGTN's Paulo Cabral reports on the kindred spirit Bolsonaro finds in Donald Trump and the benefits that may come from it.

It's been nearly 20 years since the United States first opened negotiations with Brazil over use of its Alcantara Satellite Launch Base. But talks failed as the two sides could not agree on measures that would safeguard U.S. technology. Now, the government says a deal is at hand - and a formal agreement is expected to be signed.

During President Jair Bolsonaro's trip to the US. Analysts in Brazil say choosing Donald Trump as the first foreign leader to visit shows just how much the government values the US as an ally - even its top strategic partner in the world - and the Alcantara agreement gives it something concrete to show for it.

This international relations professor says the direction relations are taking - comes in a stark departure from Brazil's multilateral foreign policy tradition.

VINICIUS VIEIRA INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR "If Brazil becomes a strategic ally of the United States that will be a big departure point in relation to what has happened between Brazil and the United States I would say not only during the last 20 years, during which Brazil was mostly governed by the Worker's Party, a left wing party, but also it will be very different from what has been happening since the end of World War 2 when Brazil got more and more distant from the United States in main international issues."

Beyond the Alcantara accord, the agenda for the two presidents will include defense cooperation, trade, ways to combat transnational crime and the volatile situation in Venezuela.

PAULO CABRAL SAO PAULO "Presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro seem to share much ideological common ground. And while that serves as the basis for a deeper political bond between the two nations, there are those in Brazil hoping it will boost economic relations as well."

THOMAS ZANOTTO, DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIES OF THE STATE OF SAO PAULO "If the two presidents have affinities on the ideological front it makes it easier to advance on the technical fronts, makes it easier for bureaucracy to advance but still you need bureaucracy to go through the technical nuts and bolts of the issues."

However this former Brazilian ambassador says ideological choices may have limited power to shape actual international trade and economic relations - and could hurt the country's foreign policy.

RUBENS BARBOSA FORMER BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR TO US "I was very critical of the Workers' Party foreign policy. Now we are beginning to realize that perhaps the current foreign policy will have a very important ideological weight, a bearing with a different signal. It was a left wing foreign policy now a right wing foreign policy."

Jair Bolsonaro promised a shift in Brazil's foreign policy priorities and strategy. The alliance with the US is a key element of this plan. The outcome of the president's trip to Washington - could shed light on just how deep those changes might be. Paulo Cabral, CGTN, Sao Paulo.