NATO chief: Brazil could become 'partner'

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Europe

Asked if a country such as Brazil could join NATO, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Wednesday that partners are not members and appeared to rule out U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that the South American nation could one day become a full member of the North Atlantic security body.

"But partners are very close partners," Stoltenberg added. "We work very closely with them, practically and politically, and that's a very good way to strengthen cooperation with NATO and countries that are not members of the alliance."

He made his remarks during an interview with Reuters ahead of a NATO ministerial meeting in Washington:

U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro hold a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, March 19, 2019. /VCG Photo

NATO membership is governed by Article 10 of its 1949 founding treaty, which limits invitations to European states, subject to the approval of existing members and meeting alliance criteria.

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Asked about Brazil becoming a partner, the secretary general said:

"Well someone has to propose it and it also has to be a request from Brazil, but... we just agreed with Colombia to make Colombia a close partner with NATO and of course it's absolutely possible to have more partners in Latin America, but it has to be an expressed wish from Latin America and of course (it's) something we have to discuss then among the 29 allies."

At a joint White House news conference last month, Trump said he had told visiting far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro he would designate Brazil a "major non-NATO ally" and possibly go further by supporting a campaign to make Brazil "maybe a NATO ally," something that would imply full membership of the NATO.

U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (L) talk to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, April 2, 2019. /VCG Photo

Becoming a "major non-NATO ally" in itself implies a status upgrade that would give a country preferential access to purchases of U.S. military equipment and technology.

Colombia reached an agreement in 2017 to become the only Latin American nation to join NATO as a "global partner," a relationship short of "ally" status, which means it would not necessarily have to take part in collective military action.

Other NATO global partners apart from those mentioned by Stoltenberg include Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Pakistan.

While addressing a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress earlier, the NATO chief said the military alliance does not want a "new arms race" with Russia and does not want a new Cold War.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 3, 2019. /VCG Photo

"I continue to call on Russia to return to compliance with the INF Treaty," said Stoltenberg, insisting that Russia had violated the agreement.

"NATO has no intention of deploying land-based missiles in Europe," he added.

During his speech, Stoltenberg also called for unity in the bloc while recognizing serious divergence. "Questions are being asked on both sides of the Atlantic about the strength of our partnership. And, yes, there are differences," he said.

Trump has long been blaming the NATO countries that they have not met the 2-percent benchmark on military spending.

(With inputs from Reuters, Xinhua)