BOGOTA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- No nation will be harmed by Colombia's signing a deal with the United States to allow that nation to use at least seven of its air bases, Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said on Friday.

    "There is no agreement for troop transit, that is to day no soldiers will come here from a third party nation to travel to another country to fight. There are no troops as such. They have not come with offense in mind," Bermudez told media in Foreign Ministry building after the formal announcement of the deal signing.

    Military cooperation will be boosted, but there will be no planeloads of troops, he said.

    "We told them that Colombia has all possible interest in destroying drug trafficking and terrorism, and that this is a technical cooperation agreement," he said, adding that the agreement had been signed earlier on Friday "discreetly."

    "What we have just done is to sign the agreement with the U.S. discretely. The cooperation and assistance accord will enter into force immediately, that is to say, as the public already knows," he said.

    He said that the agreement does not have to pass the U.S. legislature, which will only receive data about the deal. Colombia's neighbors Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela have been very critical of the agreement, which they say puts the entire region at great risk.

    The U.S. executive branch "has given the contents of the agreement to the Congress Foreign Relations Committee on a purely informative basis, just like we have done here, meeting with the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives to explain," he said.

    He also said that U.S. soldiers and civilian staff will enjoy diplomatic immunity in Colombia, but U.S. defense contractors will not enjoy this privilege.