France on Wednesday appeared to nix US President Donald Trump's suggestion that Brazil could become a NATO member while opening the door to making the South American country one of the alliance's "global partners."
In a statement, the foreign ministry noted that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's charters define a "specific geographical scope of application."
Article 10, for example, specifies that any "European state" can apply for membership in the collective defence alliance, which requires members to come to the aid of any other in case of attack.
Trump raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he suggested Brazil could become a NATO member after meeting the country's populist President Jair Bolsonaro in Washington.
"I... intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally or even possibly, if you start thinking about it, maybe a NATO ally," Trump said, before admitting that he would "have to talk to a lot of people."
Any change of the NATO charter to allow non-European members would require the approval of all 29 current member states.
At the same time, Brazil could become a NATO "global partner", which means their forces can take part in alliance missions and operations, though currently there are no discussions underway on this.
"NATO can establish a dialogue and concrete cooperation with partners, as it has already done with nearly 40 non-member nations and international organisations, including in Latin America," the French foreign ministry said.
Last year, Colombia became the first NATO global partner in Latin America.
Trump has been unstinting in his criticism of NATO's European members, accusing them of freeloading on the protection offered by the US military while not spending enough on their own armed forces.
Before taking office Trump called NATO "obsolete" and soon after a NATO summit last July summit he questioned whether the US would honour the alliance's founding principle of mutual defence for newest member Montenegro.
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Canada extends Iraq, Ukraine military training missions
Ottawa (AFP) March 18, 2019
Canada's defense and foreign ministers jointly announced Monday the extensions of military training missions in Iraq and Ukraine. Both had been slated to wrap up at the end of March, but security concerns persist. In Iraq, Canada will keep 250 special forces troops advising and training Iraqi security forces, plus several attack helicopters, as part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State mission until the end of March 2021. The number of troops deployed could ramp up to 850, if ne ... read more
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