Brazil and Colombia agree on anti-drug border defence
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil and Colombia have agreed to develop military equipment together, conduct joint manoeuvres in the jungle and monitor airspace used by drug smugglers, officials from both nations said on Thursday.
The agreement, which would go into effect after technical details were worked out and will ultimately include Peru as well, marks a shift for Colombia, which has tended to focus on military cooperation with the United States.
"We want to build a strategic alliance with Brazil to improve the security of Colombians, the same way we are perfecting our strategic alliance with the United States," Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters after meeting Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
"For Colombia, the south as much as the north is important."
Both countries agreed to monitor each others' airspace within 50 km (31 miles) of their common border, a spokesman for the Brazilian defence ministry said.
They will use Brazil's Sipam surveillance system, which is a network of radars and satellites, to monitor the Amazon.
Brazil's Air Force, which since 2004 has had a policy of shooting down aircraft suspected of drug smuggling, currently gets little advance warning of traffickers flying in from Colombia, the world's leading cocaine producer.
"What we want is for them to be able to monitor our airspace and we theirs, so we can control the region better," Santos said.
In response to drug traffickers' increased use of rivers in the dense Amazon jungle, Brazil and Colombia also are looking to conduct joint manoeuvres on the region's major waterways.
JOINT ARMS INDUSTRY
South American countries last year created a regional defence council, which was proposed by Brazil and intended to help defuse potential conflicts and encourage a common defence industry.
Colombia plans to help finance the development of the KC-390 transport plane by Brazil's aircraft manufacturer Embraer, Brazil's defence ministry said. It also offered expertise in manufacturing river patrol boats.
Both countries are considering the development of unmanned airplanes, Santos said.
Colombia's government has close ties with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a moderate leftist. That contrasts sharply with Bogota's tense relationship with the socialist leaders of Venezuela and Ecuador.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose U.S.-backed military offensive has weakened the FARC guerrilla group, often accuses the leftist guerrillas of taking refuge in the two neighbouring nations.
Ecuador broke off relations with Bogota last year after Colombian troops attacked a FARC rebel camp in Ecuador.
(Additional reporting by Pat Markey in Bogota; Editing by Paul Simao)