Rabat – Morocco’s Royal Navy has been taking part in US-sponsored naval exercises in the Gulf of Guinea since March 21. Initiated by the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), a project to strengthen US military relationships with its African partners, this year’s edition is taking place in Cameroon at the country’s naval base in Douala. The exercises have brought together 31 states and are set to end on March 29.
Most of the participants coming from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). As such, the North African country’s Royal Navy is reported to have seized the opportunity to showcase the strategic assets Morocco offers in its ECOWAS bid to build an effective and responsive regional force.
This strategy also aims at facing the mounting security threats in the region, especially the G5 Sahel coalition.
According to American military authorities, the Obangame/Saharan Express—the official name of AFRICOM’s naval exercises in the Gulf of Guinea—aims to boost collective responses to a wide range of security threats in the region, including the fight against piracy, intelligence and expertise sharing, and the fight against human trafficking and drug smuggling.
Together with 31 other national navies, Morocco’s Royal Marines exercised in “building defense capabilities, responding to crises, deterring and defeating transnational threats… in order to promote regional security and stability,” AFRICOM said in a statement about its naval exercises and operations in the Gulf of Guinea.
It is worth noting that many analysts deem the North African country an indispensable partner and an important player in the US’s counter-terrorism activities in Africa and the Arab world. Last week, in a move to boost US-Morocco cooperation on national defense and navy-related concerns, a US-navy delegation paid a working visit to Rabat and Tangier.
