Agence France-Presse
June 4, 2013
U.S. might support Colombia NATO bid: State Department official
The United States might support a bid by Colombia for NATO membership just as it has backed the close Latin American ally in other international fora, a senior State Department official said Monday.
“Our goal is certainly to support Colombia as being a capable and strong member of lots of different international organizations, and that might well include NATO,” said Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.
“Ultimately this is a decision that all of the NATO members would have to make,” she added.
Colombia this month will sign a cooperation agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with a view ultimately to membership, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday.
“It is not all that surprising that the Colombians are interested in where else they would be able to interact,” Jacobson said.
Bolivian President Evo Morales called the move a “provocation” and a threat to “anti-imperialist” countries like Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua or Ecuador.
He said he was prepared to ask for a meeting of UNASUR, a grouping that includes most South American countries, to discuss the issue.
Jacobson would not comment on Morales’s statements.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, will meet Tuesday in Antigua, Guatemala, with foreign ministers from around the region at a gathering of the Organization of American States focused on counter-drug policies.
“He’s looking forward to that conversation,” said Jacobson. “There’s a very strong coincidences of views.”
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MercoPress
June 4, 2013
Strong reaction from Bolivarian countries to Colombia’s cooperation with NATO
President Juan Manuel Santos announcement over the weekend that Colombia will look for a cooperation understanding with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) on their invitation, has irked the so called Latin American group of ‘anti-imperialist countries’, at a moment when relations between neighbouring Colombia and Venezuela have hit a new low.
“A threat for Bolivarian countries” claimed Bolivia’s Evo Morales who requested an urgent meeting of Unasur Sec Council
Bolivian president Evo Morales took as a fact that Colombia is planning to join NATO…and claimed the move was a ‘threat’, a ‘provocation’ and a conspiracy against the “anti-imperialist Bolivarian countries” of the continent.
Morales added that the threat was geared against Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela, the country with which Colombia has had a serious diplomatic clash following the meeting of President Santos at the Government house, Palacio Nariño, with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
The opposition leader does not consider President Nicolas Maduro and his government as legitimate since he argues there was “a notorious ballot fraud in the recent disputed election”.
“In June, NATO will sign an agreement with the Colombian government, with the Defense Ministry, to start a process of rapprochement and cooperation, with an eye toward also joining that organization,” Santos said at a military promotion ceremony.
Santos said the army could become an international player if his government can bring off a peace deal as it is trying to do, with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It is Latin America’s longest-running insurgency.
“If we can achieve peace, the army will be in a place where it will be able to distinguish itself internationally as well. We are already doing it on many fronts,” he said.
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But from Brussels a reliable source explained that Colombia does not comply with the “geographic criteria” for membership. However a NATO spokesperson said that they are working on a draft agreement that would allow “the exchange of classified information between Colombia and the alliance”, but underlined “there are no plans to establish a formal association”.
So far the two sides are exploring “the possibility of going ahead with joint specific activities”.
But despite NATO’s comments on the issue, Morales insisted that it was “a threat for the region” and called on UNASUR Secretary General Ali Rodriguez from Venezuela to call an “emergency meeting” of the block’s Security Council.
“How is it possible that Colombia wants to be a member of NATO? What for? To have NATO commit aggression against Latinamerica, so they can invade us, as they have done in Europe, Africa and Asia?, said Morales.
In a similar reaction Venezuelan president Maduro said that “we can’t ally ourselves to war projects in the world, to nuclear weapons; we must be a territory free of nuclear weapons and dedicated to peace”.
Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua was more emphatic: “that a Latin American country wants to join NATO; it will only be an instrument for a policy to debilitate and try to destroy the current union process that the region is undergoing”.
“Latin America can’t open itself to governments and armed forces from other continents. I would be madness and treason to Bolivar and the liberators of our peoples”, added Ortega.
However Santos is not the first Latam president that has flirted with NATO and with the idea of close links. Argentina’s Carlos Menem did something similar back in 1999, the last year of his second mandate, and which meant Argentina would be accepted as an “associate member” of NATO, which finally never occurred.
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