Brazil's defense minister said in an interview published Tuesday he did not see any reason for a US military base to be established in Brazilian soil, as new President Jair Bolsonaro had floated last week.

"It's a very complex subject... I don't see what motive there could be for base like that," Fernando Avezedo e Silva, a retired general, told the Brazilian financial newspaper Valor in an interview conducted last Friday.

Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper who declared himself a "friend" of the United States a day after taking office on New Year's Day, said in a TV interview last Thursday that he was open to discussing the opening of US military base in Brazil.

He said such a facility could be needed to respond to what he saw as increasing regional instability from neighboring Venezuela, which is backed by Russia.

His foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, reinforced the idea by telling a meeting of several Western Hemisphere counterparts that "we have an interest in increasing cooperation with the United States in all areas."

Bolsonaro's comment, however, stirred reported objections among Brazil's military brass, who have long sought an independent policy from the US, prompting a rethink by the president.

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said Tuesday, citing military officials, that Bolsonaro had told the heads of the military he had dropped the idea.

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Bolsonaro open to discussing future US military base in Brazil
Brasilia (AFP) Jan 4, 2019
Brazil's new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday he was open to discussing his country hosting a US military base "in the future," underlining his stated desire for closer ties with America. "Depending on what might happen in the world, who knows if we might have to talk about that subject in the future," the 63-year-old former paratrooper, who took office this week, told SBT television. "The physical issue of it might be just symbolic. Currently, American, Chinese, Russian armed fo ... read more