There is more to U.S.-Argentine relations than the seductions of tango, wine and pampas-fed beef. Argentine Defense Minister Jorge Dominguez met with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday and later attended a briefing on the Kosovo pacification process at the Pentagon, the Argentine Embassy said.
Argentina is the eighth-largest contributor of peacekeepers around the world -- and No. 1 in Latin America -- with troops in Bosnia, Cyprus, Africa and on the border between Kuwait and Iraq, an embassy official said. "There is some possibility that Argentina could offer troops to the Kosovo peace effort," the official added.
On Jan. 6, 1998, President Clinton designated Argentina as the first major non-NATO ally in Latin America. For several years, this status had been limited to Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
The benefits of such status are largely symbolic, implying a close working relationship between a country's defense forces and its American counterparts. It involves U.S.-funded military training in the United States and the assignment of American trainers to military academies in Argentina.
Major non-NATO allies are eligible for priority delivery of excess defense equipment; the stockpiling of American defense materials; the purchase of depleted-uranium antitank ammunition; participation in cooperative research and development programs; and, for those that qualified as of March 31, 1995, participation in the Defense Export Loan Guarantee program, which backs up private loans for commercial defense exports.
Even before gaining major non-NATO ally status, Argentina was offered more excess defense gear from the United States than any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1996 and 1997.