U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil’s new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro forged a bond over their shared brand of conservative and populist politics Tuesday, with Trump pledging to give more U.S. support to Brazil’s global ambitions.

Speaking at a joint White House news conference Trump said: “As I told President Bolsonaro, I also intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally — or, maybe a NATO ally.”

Brazil has pursued a closer relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to make buying U.S. weapons easier and to lower barriers to military and other cooperation with the U.S.

At the outset of their first meeting, the two populist presidents exchanged soccer jerseys from their national teams, with Trump’s name emblazoned on Brazil’s famous yellow shirt and Bolsonaro’s on the USA uniform.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who styled his 2018 campaign on Trump’s 2016 run, has declared himself an unabashed admirer of the U.S. president, and his politics and the American way of life.

In 2018, Colombia became the only Latin American nation to join the NATO, as a “global partner,” which means it will not necessarily have to take part in military action.

Trump also said he supported Brazil’s efforts to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of the world’s advanced economies.

Trump warned that the U.S. could impose “a lot tougher” sanctions on Venezuela as he urged the country’s military to depose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro. Bolsonaro echoed his calls for an end to the Maduro government in Venezuela.

Separately, the U.S. announced Tuesday new sanctions against Venezuela’s state-run mining company Minerven and its president, Adrian Perdomo, in a bid to further cut off funding to the government.  (SD-Agencies)