MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil will increase military presence in the Amazon to protect natural resources
Defence Minister Celos Amorim made the announcement before Congress Brazil will boost its military presence in the Amazon region to protect its huge natural resources from any external threat, Defence Minister Celso Amorim told the Senate on Thursday.
“The commitment to the defence of the Amazon is fundamental. Navy, Air Force, all services will boost their presence in the Amazon in the next few years,” he said without giving further details.
Amorim said Brazil did not feel threatened by any neighbouring country but added: “We cannot rule out that some power from outside the region” may covet the natural resources of the Amazon, the planet's largest rainforest and its main source of fresh water.
”We are working on a plan to deploy (security) forces and the Amazon plays a very important role. It's the most vulnerable part of our country,“ Amorim said.
”We have a wealth of resources which can make us the target of adventures,“ he added.
Amorim said the country's strategic planners were planning to boost ”transparent cooperation“ with other Amazon countries, referring to plans to set up a security commission with Peru and Colombia.
”We do not feel threatened by any South American countries and we do not want anyone to feel threatened by us. We always want full transparency to avoid suspicions,” the minister said.
Brazil, Latin America's largest country and the world's sixth largest economy, shares the sprawling Amazon with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
Brasilia is also boosting its naval power in the South Atlantic with a ambitious submarine program to protect its huge deep-water oil reserves and project its growing influence.
Under the National Defense Strategy unveiled in 2008, the navy was tasked with developing a blue-water force to protect Brazil's huge sub-salt oil reserves, the Amazon river basin and its 7,491 km coastline.
The sub-salt oil fields, located off the country's southeast Atlantic coast beneath kilometres of ocean, bedrock and hot sat-beds, could contain more than 100 billion barrels of high-quality recoverable oil, according to official estimates.
The centrepiece of the naval build-up is the ProSub program under which France is to supply four Scorpone-class diesel-electric submarines and help develop the non-nuclear components of Brazil's first nuclear-powered fast attack submarine.
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Apr 28th, 2012 - 07:03 am 0Following the British turnips “Self-Determination” logic used so frequently in these pages to justify the squatting of the Malvinas Islands………….:
There would be no reason why the 11,000 Mennonites of Brazil couldn’t claim “Self-Determination” over half of the Amazonas Basin and make a nice and cozy Defense and Commerce agreement with Germany…………
Or what about……:
The 1,500,000 nipo-brasileiro Japanese claiming “Self-Determination” for a nice chunk of the São Paulo state and ”Freely Associating” with Japan?
“The 1,500,000 nipo-brasileiro Japanese claiming “Self-Determination” for a nice chunk of the São Paulo state and ”Freely Associating” with Japan? ”
Apr 28th, 2012 - 07:26 am 0Nah, they are too Brazilian and that 1,500.000 of nipo-brasileiros is a number of nipo-paulistanos in the city of Sao Paulo ( area Liberdade ). Imagine how many more their are only in the state of Sao Paulo.
“There would be no reason why the 11,000 Mennonites of Brazil couldn’t claim “Self-Determination” over half of the Amazonas Basin and make a nice and cozy Defense and Commerce agreement with Germany…………”
11.000? You would shocked how many there are in the states of Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
Anyway Think, most ugly brits are brain dead and prefer pay attention to what's happening outside that dump called the UK (which is bankrupt..keep printing boys, keep spending reckless, keep bailing out the broken banks, more austerity measures and keep believing that there is no inflation) by watching BBC and Sky news. You can't blame them for not knowing a continent they never visited and never will visit.
I'm always carefull and conservative with my numbers......
Apr 28th, 2012 - 07:40 am 0Not like so many others in here, Mr. Fido Dido.......
None mentioned; none forgotten....
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