*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) MEDELLIN, Colombia - August 16, 2009: Colombia would like to increase its military ties with Brazil and other South American countries, President Alvaro Uribe said on Friday in the face of criticism over an pending security pact with Washington.
Colombia's new Defense Minister Gabriel Silva shakes hands with a soldier during a visit to a military base in La Macarena province in Meta August 9, 2009.
Uribe's government is expected to sign a deal this month giving U.S. forces increased access to military bases in order to better fight the cocaine trade and Marxist insurgents.
The left-wing government of Venezuela has blasted the plan as a threat to regional stability. The moderate government of Brazil has also voiced concern over the pact.
"We would like the accord with the United States to be projected throughout the continent," Uribe told a business conference in the city of Medellin."
We would like to have it with Brazil," he said. "I do not see this pact with the United States as incompatible with having pacts with other countries as well."
Brazil, South America's biggest country and largest economy, is building up its armed forces as part of a push to increase its role on the world stage.
Washington has given billions of dollars in military assistance to Colombia, helping Uribe put the insurgents on the defensive. But the country remains the world's biggest producer of cocaine.
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