Colombia, US Negotiate Frozen Military Assistance

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 04, 2003

Colombia, US Negotiate Frozen Military Assistance

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Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos expressed confidence Thursday that a compromise can be reached over Washington's suspension of its military aid to Colombia although negotiations will be difficult.

"The negotiation has been undertaken at a high level ... We arenegotiating on the basis that we are very close allies and that weboth need each other," Santos said at a farewell ceremony for outgoing US ambassador Anne Patterson at the Defense Ministry.

The United States decided Tuesday to suspend military aid of 5 million US dollars to Colombia as punishment for its refusal to grant immunity to Americans from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Assuring that her country would not cease efforts to help Colombia fight drug trafficking and production, Patterson praised Colombia's anti-drug efforts and predicted that the two countries could work closely despite Washington's decision on military aid.

Meanwhile, Colombian ambassador to Washington Luis Moreno said he was not aware that the 5 million dollars in assistance had been frozen.

"The information we got is that the money is already approved. I have not been able to learn what was the item they froze," he said.

Colombia, the third largest recipient of US military assistance after Israel and Egypt, insists that a 1962 agreement, renewed in 2000, already protects US citizens from the ICC.

Over the past three years, Colombia has received more than 2 billion dollars in aid through Plan Colombia.

Besides Colombia, Latin American countries affected by Washington's decision were Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

Washington, which doesn't recognize the authority of the ICC, has been busy forging bilateral accords on its citizens' immunity from the ICC.

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