Sivam, which comprises 25 ground-based radar and eight aircraft, 87 satellite imaging stations and 200 data-gathering platforms, is used by Brazil to both monitor environmental conditions and to keep track of guerrillas and groups of drug traffickers that make incursions into the Amazonian border regions.
Toledo emphasised that the 'strategic alliance' that was recently signed between the two countries goes beyond mere commercial ties to embrace political and security issues. The two men are also, however, expected to sign a free-trade agreement, which should serve as a blueprint for the countries within their respective economic blocs, the Andean Community and Mercosur.
It is no secret that Lula considers a deal between Latin America's major economic trading blocs as his number one foreign policy priority, seeing it as a way to confirm Brazil's hemispheric leadership ahead of talks with the US over the future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
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