Santiago - Chile said yesterday it was not interested in forging a military alliance with the US like its neighbour, Argentina. "Chile is not going to ask the United States to assign us any special status . . . because we are not interested in a special status," the Foreign Minister, Mr Jose Miguel Insulza, said.
President Clinton on Thursday formally notified Argentina during his visit to Buenos Aires that he had asked the US Congress to recognise Argentina as a "strategic non-NATO military ally". Washington had told Santiago's authorities last month that its offer also would be open to Chile and other Latin American nations.
Mr Insulza pointed out that, unlike Argentina, Chile had not taken part in US-led military and diplomatic operations such as the Gulf War, the intervention in Haiti and peacekeeping missions in Bosnia.