Jack Lew won the Senate Finance Committee’s approval to become US Treasury secretary and a full vote in the upper house confirmed Chuck Hagel as the next US defense secretary. The Senate approved the nomination Tuesday in a vote of 58 to 41.
Argentina’s intention of having the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty issue included in the agenda of the Americas Defense ministers’ conference currently taking place in Uruguay was rejected, mainly because of the positions from the US, Canada and several Caribbean states.
United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta starts on Friday a week-long trip to Peru and Uruguay where he will attend the Conference of Defence Ministers of the Americas, the Pentagon announced on Thursday.
Brazil will get US advanced technology transfers if it buys Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet to upgrade its air force, visiting US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.
Brazilian Defence Minister Celso Amorim and his visiting US peer Leon Panetta considered an increase in cooperation in many different areas including cyber-security, science and military technology and humanitarian assistance during a bilateral meeting held in Brasilia.
Another embarrassing ‘Colombian style’ incident surfaced involving US personnel and prostitutes in Latin America on Tuesday, as US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that Marines had been punished for allegedly injuring a prostitute in Brazil in December.
Brazil wants the US to eliminate barriers to the transfer of military technology, an issued that will be addressed on Tuesday April 24, in Brasilia when US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta meets with his peer Celso Amorim.
The US will seek to wind down combat operations in Afghanistan during 2013, more than a year before a deadline for withdrawal, the defence secretary says. Speaking while travelling to a Nato summit, Leon Panetta said the US hoped to switch to a role training and supporting Afghan forces.