In further pressure against Chinese companies’ participation in Brazilian 5G, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has offered Jair Bolsonaro’s government support for Brazil to become a global NATO partner. of the North Atlantic Treaty).
The country’s entry into the cooperation program within the military alliance was discussed with Sullivan and Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto this Thursday morning (5) in Brasilia. Sullivan was also at the Planalto Palace, to meet with President Bolsonaro.
The Americans have signaled to the Bolsonaro government to try to convince the Brazilian authorities to veto Huawei’s participation in the future national 5G market. The message was that one thing depends on the other.
Washington’s official policy is that the presence of suppliers deemed untrustworthy – such as Huawei and other Chinese companies – on fifth-generation communications networks prevents deepening of defense and security cooperation. .
Therefore, Brazil’s access to the NATO program would only be possible without Chinese participation in Brazilian 5G. In theory, as one interlocutor explained, Brazil’s membership in the partnership would depend on the approval of other NATO members, but American support is seen as crucial.
By signaling Brazil’s possible entry into an alliance cooperation project, Joe Biden’s government is trying to enlist the support of the military wing of the Bolsonaro government in efforts against Huawei’s presence in 5G networks.
The theme currently divides the uniforms. Military personnel working at the Institutional Security Office (GSI) with General Augusto Heleno are in favor of banning the Chinese, using national security arguments, but other members of the armed forces maintain that they never had any problems with it. Huawei for more than two decades during which it has operated in the country.
The possible rise of Brazil as a “global partner” of NATO would allow special military conditions for the purchase of weapons from the countries that are part of the organization. It would also open up more space for the training of military personnel at alliance bases around the world.
The association also creates mechanisms to assist NATO members in situations of international conflict. In the event of a military operation in a conflict scenario, Brazil might be called upon to participate, but it would be free to decide not to get involved.
In South America, the only country to have NATO “global partner” status is Colombia, the most traditional American ally in the region and with a long history of military cooperation with the Americans. Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan have the same status.
NATO was created in the post-war period as a transatlantic alliance between the United States, Canada and the countries of Western Europe against the military might of the Soviet Union. In the late 1990s, the organization began its process of expansion with countries within the Soviet sphere of influence. On this occasion, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined as full members.
One of the main axes of the organization is currently the integration of the military structures of the members of the alliance, with the standardization of equipment – central point for the USA, which provides this war material.
Banning the participation of Chinese companies in 5G is currently one of the top priorities of US diplomacy. Diplomatic pressures were intense in Donald Trump’s administration and did not abate with Biden’s arrival in the White House.
Sullivan’s trip to Brasilia is the second high-level visit by a U.S. official in less than a month to address the issue. In early July, the head of the US intelligence agency (the CIA), William Burns, was in the federal capital for a series of meetings, including with Bolsonaro.