MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unasur council addresses initiative to compare military spending in the region

Peruvian Minister of Defence Daniel Mora Zevallos is hosting the meeting

The Unasur Defence Council is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Peru to address an action plan for 2012, which once approved will help estimate and compare in a more compatible way military expenditure.

“This meeting has as its main purpose submitting to evaluation from the region’s ministers of the Action Plan 2012”, said a formal release from the Peruvian Ministry of Defence that will be hosting the Union of South American Nations defence council.

“The plan once approved will be delivered to the Paraguayan Ministry of Defence for its coordination”, added the release.

Paraguay currently holds the rotating chair of Unasur.

Unasur Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia advanced that the Action Plan 2012 is an attempt to try to amalgamate all the initiatives presented to establish a common accepted compatible methodology to assess military spending in the region.

The two day meeting has been convened by the Peruvian Minister of Defence Daniel Mora Zevallos as president of the pro tempore chair of the South American Defence Council.

Besides Peru and Paraguay the Defence council includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The Defence Council was created as a mechanism to promote the exchange of data in security isses among countries belonging to Unasur.