The Brazilian government says that it rejects any interference of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, in the South Atlantic or any idea of a similar organization at South Atlantic level, reports Brazilian O Estado de S. Paulo.
Defense minister Nelson Jobim who has been meeting with US officials made the issue “most clear” to his US counterparts, particularly any interference in the South Atlantic.
“The South Atlantic has security questions which are very different from those in the North Atlantic,” Jobim is alleged to have argued.
The newspaper also reports that Jobim expressed fears that an expanded area of action for NATO, speared by the undisputed power of the United States could lead to “multilateral war actions without the support from the UN Security Council.”
In few words the message from Brazil to US officials was that “NATO can’t substitute the United Nations.”
Jobim had already anticipated those fears last September during a conference at Portugal’s National Defense Institute, with the participation of representatives from Europe, Latin America and the United States.
At the time Jobim argued that a literal interpretation of NATO’s role as an “Atlantic organization” could open the doors for intervention in any part of the world, under different pretexts.
The Brazilian minister visited Washington where he met with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano “to reaffirm the shared commitment of the United States and Brazil to strengthening the global aviation system,” according to an official US report.
The US and Brazil signed a Joint Statement of Intent on aviation security between DHS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Empresa Brasileira de Infra-Estrutura Aeroportuária (INFRAERO), a state-owned company which operates under the Brazilian Ministry of Defense.
“Together, the international community is forging a 21st century international aviation security framework that will make air travel safer and more secure than ever before,” said Secretary Napolitano. “I look forward to working closely my Brazilian counterparts to continue our unprecedented collaboration to better protect the international aviation system.”
Secretary Napolitano also applauded Brazil’s support for the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) recent adoption of a historic Declaration on Aviation Security – forging a new foundation for aviation security that will better protect the entire global aviation system from evolving terrorist threats.
