Argentinian Defense Minister Luis Petri (right) meets with NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana (left) to submit Argentina's application to become a NATO global partner, in Brussels, Belgium, April 18, 2024. Photo: NATO.
Argentina submitted a formal request to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to become a “global partner” of the Alliance, Argentinian Minister of Defense Luis Petri announced earlier this week.
“I met with Mircea Geoana, deputy secretary general of NATO,” Petri posted on his X account on Thursday, April 18. “I submitted to him the letter of intent expressing Argentina’s request to become a global partner of this organization. We will continue working on recovering the relations that will allow us to modernize and train our forces to NATO standards.”
Petri traveled to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in a NATO meeting held on Thursday.
In an interview with the Argentinian media El Cronista prior to his trip to Brussels, Minister Petri commented, “the decision to join NATO’s global partner program implies the improvement of the country’s defense capabilities through interoperability, participating in the international security discussion, modernizing doctrine, access to equipment and information to confront multilaterally the various challenges faced by defense in the 21st century.”
“It is the mandate of President Milei, to reconcile our Armed Forces with the Western, democratic and free world,” he added.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana declared that NATO has received “very positively” Argentina’s application to become a “global partner” of the bloc.
“Argentina presented us with its candidacy to become NATO’s second partner in Latin America, after Colombia. Of course, we value it very positively,” he said.
NATO, whose founding agreement was signed on April 4, 1949 in Washington DC, is currently the largest military bloc in the world. With the incorporation of Finland and Sweden, in 2023 and 2024, respectively, the alliance will have 32 member countries. In Latin America, Colombia is its only global partner.
(Sputnik)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
