Brazil To Sign Military
Cooperation Treaty With
France
RIO DE JANEIRO -
Brazil's Defense
Minister Nelson Jobim
announced Monday that
the country would sign a
military cooperation
treaty with France in
December.
Jobim said under the
treaty, to be signed
during the upcoming
visit of French
President Nicolas
Sarkozy to Brazil,
France would provide
technology for the
construction of Brazil's
first nuclear submarine
and training for the
Brazilian troops.
"Brazil has the fuel.
The agreement with
France is for the
construction of the
non-nuclear part of the
submarine," said the
minister, "President
Sarkozy will come to
Brazil at the end of the
year and will sign the
treaty on Dec. 22 or
23."
The nuclear submarine
has become one of
Brazil's priorities
since the discovery of
the pre-salt layer oil
fields off the country's
southeastern and
southern coast, which
would turn Brazil into
one of the world's major
oil producers.
Jobim made the
announcement in
Itapemirim, southeast
Espirito Santo state,
where he monitored the
military maneuvers coded
as Operation Atlantic,
an exercise in which
Brazil's armed forces
simulate a war over the
control of the pre-salt
layer oil fields.
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