Rabat – Morocco has become a member of the Interoperability Platform, launched by The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to reinforce the defense and security sectors of its partners in the MENA region.
NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, said during the recent NATO-Morocco Public Diplomacy Seminar held in Rabat that Morocco ‘’ has joined our Interoperability Platform so that its armed forces can better operate with NATO forces.”
Under this membership, the Moroccan armed forced will operate side by side with NATO forces in the upcoming joint regional security initiatives against terrorism and religious extremism.
“With its professional and modern military, Morocco has contributed in various ways to NATO missions in the Balkans and to Operation Unified Protector in Libya five years ago,” Vershbow said, adding that the greatest challenge faced by Morocco today is from “terrorism and religious extremism.”
NATO official said that Morocco’s membership in NATO Interoperability Platform caps a long history of bilateral diplomatic and defense cooperation, noting that NATO considers the northern African country a “a neighbor, a partner and a friend that this regional organization can rely on.”
Morocco’s relationship with NATO has been strengthened over the past couple of years since the country signed an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program to identify points of future collaboration, particularly in the fields of cybersecurity, energy independence, and military defense initiative.
Morocco is member of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue since its launch in 1994 and benefits from associate Status to NATO’s parliament assembly.
