Colombia and Brazil agreed to strengthen the surveillance of their shared border by monitoring airspace.
Colombian Minister for Defense Juan Manuel Santos met Thursday with Brazilian colleague Nelson Jobim in Brasilia, Brazil to address the issue of aerial drug trafficking that occurs from both sides of the shared border.
Santos said that increased surveillance of the Amazon region by the use of Brazilian radar and satellite technology was proposed in the meeting. He said the technology would make it possible to monitor airspace up to 50 kilometers each side of the border. He clarified that if one country were to to detect an illegal airship, the other would not be permitted to monitor or track it until it flew into that country’s airspace.
Santos stressed his interest is negotiating a similar agreement with Peru, which shares a section of its Amazonia border with Colombia and Brazil.
