President Trump is interested in bringing Brazil into NATO, he announced Tuesday during a press conference alongside the South American nation’s new leader.
“I also intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally or even — possibly, if you start thinking about it — maybe a NATO ally,” Trump said, standing in the White House Rose Garden next to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. “Have to talk to a lot of people, but maybe a NATO ally, which will greatly advance security and cooperation between our countries.”
Expanding NATO to include Brazil would require the approval of all 29 members of the transatlantic alliance. Trump has been trying to tighten U.S.-Brazilian ties since Bolsonaro’s victory in October. The anti-communist leader campaigned on a pro-American platform and, on taking office Jan. 1, became a key partner in the effort to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. Trump noted at the press conference that Brazil was one of the first countries after the U.S. to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.
“Our nations are already working together to protect our people from terrorism, transnational crime, and drugs and weapons trafficking,” Trump said. “We look forward to an even deeper partnership and working together.”
The Brazilian delegation toured the CIA Monday, a visit that wasn’t listed on Bolsonaro’s public schedule. The president’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a lawmaker traveling with his father, revealed the CIA stop on Twitter.
Bolsonaro has expressed concern about Chinese encroachment in South America, and a partnership between Brazil and the United States would challenge China’s play for regional influence and economic power. Brazil is a member of BRICS, a bloc of developing economies that meets annually, along with Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
“This is a historic remaking of the U.S.-Brazil relationship, where there’s truly going to be a North-South axis of the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere and a true partnership of the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere,” a senior administration official told reporters in a Monday preview of Bolsonaro’s visit.
