The United States is talking with the Colombian government on the establishment of a military base in Colombia for anti-drug operations in Latin America, Colombian radio station La W reported on Friday.
The report quoted Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon as saying Colombia is one of the countries the U.S. is negotiating with for setting up an anti-drug military base.
Gordon told the radio that the accord between the U.S. and Ecuador on the military base in Manta province will conclude in 2009 and the U.S. is now trying to find a substitute for the base.
"We have many alliances in the region and Colombia is one of the strongest countries in those alliances, we are going to work with all the alliances to fight against the threats against both countries (the U.S. and Colombia) and other countries," he said.
Ecuador has indicated that it will not renew the accord allowing the U.S. military to continue using the base in Manta since it does not want foreign troops in its territory.
Gordon said the U.S. troops use the base to carry out anti-drug operations in the Pacific Ocean, one of the routes preferred by Colombian and Peruvian drug traffickers to transport illicit drugs to North America.
"We have airplanes that fly from Manta to seek drug traffickers in the Pacific, mainly because they use airplane and ship routes to go northward. It is an Ecuadoran base, we use airplanes there but it is not our base," he said.
Source: Xinhua
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