Colombia to become NATO 'global partner' next week – president

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that his country will formally join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a global partner next week. "Global partners," or "partners across the globe," are a category of countries that NATO cooperates with on an individual basis outside of its main frameworks.

They include Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan. The NATO website also already lists Colombia among global partners. President Santos hopes that Colombia, which is the first Latin American country to attain the status, will now "have much more play" in the global political arena.