U.S. Defense Secretary Gates travels to Chile and Bolivia to improve defense ties

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U.S. Defense Secretary Gates travels to Chile and Bolivia to improve defense ties

2010-11-20 03:32:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday boarded the National Airborne Operations Center aircraft en route to Chile and Bolivia where he intends to improve defense ties.

Gates will first meet arrive to Santiago, Chile, where he will meet his counterpart Jaime Ravinet. This will be Gates’ second visit to Chile as defense secretary. He first visited the South American country back in October 2007.

"We have, among other shared interests, a mutual desire to develop regional mechanisms to support disaster relief," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrel said. "The capabilities that Chile has developed in this arena were on full display to the world this year, from its remarkable response to the earthquake and tsunami that struck in February to the extraordinary rescue of the 33 miners trapped underground for 70 days."

The United States considers Chile among its closest partners in the hemisphere. This weekend's visit is a continuation of a series of military visits and exchanges between the two nations in the past two years. The U.S. and Chile are engaged in a long-standing strategic dialogue.

Gates expects that during his visit he expects to further military-to-military cooperation. The Chilean Army was called on a new defense reform law to work together more among its branches. Gates will share lessons that the U.S. learned in a similar undertaking.

"There are many areas of common interest and common objective and I think the secretary is very interested in solidifying, institutionalizing and strengthening that, in light of the meeting Gates and Ravinet had here in September," Morrel continued.

After visiting Chile, Secretary Gates will attend the Conference of the Defense Ministers of the Americas in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Gates will have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil and El Salvador during the conference.

This year's conference will focus on three key issues: peace, trust and cooperation; democracy, the armed forces and society; and regional security of humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

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