Meeting in Brasilia, diplomats and military personnel from Brazil and the United States initiated a new exchange of ideas and impressions on both countries’ direction in the area of defense policy and strategy. The talks, known as Pol-MilTalks, are part of the U.S.-Brazil political-military dialogue, a bilateral discussion channel that appears to be gaining momentum.
Meeting in Brasilia, diplomats and military personnel from Brazil and the United States initiated a new exchange of ideas and impressions on both countries’ direction in the area of defense policy and strategy. The talks, known as Pol-MilTalks, are part of the U.S.-Brazil political-military dialogue, a bilateral discussion channel that appears to be gaining momentum.
According to an official statement, the meeting brought together around thirty officials and experts from both nations, who discussed, among other topics, questions of regional security, Brazilian participation in peace missions, and possible trade agreements with technology-transfer commitments.
The dialogue represented an opportunity for the Brazilian Defense Ministry to reintroduce itself in the context of a new institutional reality, substantially different from that of the previous meeting in Washington in 2006.
Today, Brazil has a National Defense Strategy, published in 2008, that determines the government’s actions on issues of national sovereignty. In addition, in 2010, Complementary Law No. 136 was approved, creating the Armed Forces Joint General Staff, and the decrees on the New Military Structure and the structural reorganization of the Defense Ministry were promulgated.
This meeting will be followed by technical meetings of the Defense Bilateral Working Group. The signing of new agreements is not foreseen, but an expansion of existing cooperation is expected.