A recent article in Kenya\u2019s Africa Review cited sources in the African Union (AU) disclosing that the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization is preparing to sign a military partnership treaty with the 53-nation AU.<\/p>\n
The author of the article, relaying comments from AU officials in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where the organization has its headquarters, wrote that although \u201cthe stated aim is to counter global security threats and specifically threats against Africa, some observers read the pact as aiming to counter Chinese expansion in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feature further claimed that NATO is negotiating the opening of a liaison office at AU headquarters and that the North Atlantic Alliance\u2019s legal department is working with its AU counterpart \u201cto finalise the new pact, which will be signed soon.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
The news story additionally divulged that Ramtane Lamamra, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, \u201cconfirmed that Nato is to sign a military cooperation agreement with the AU\u201d with particular emphasis on consolidating the African Standby Force (ASF). The latter is intended to consist of brigades attached to the five Regional Economic Communities on the continent. (North, East, West, Central and Southern.) The West African Standby Force has been tasked the role of intervening in \u2013 which is to say invading and occupying \u2013 Ivory Coast since the announcement of presidential runoff election results in the country in December [2], and contributors to the East Africa Standby Brigade (EASBRIG), Uganda and Burundi, are engaged as combatants in the civil war in Somalia.<\/p>\n
The AU\u2019s Lamamra stated \u201cAfrica would like to learn from Nato on strategic airlift, advanced communications, rotation of important units among regions and to meet logistical challenges,\u201d adding that \u201cNato was a good model on which to build the ASF.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n
NATO airlifted thousands of Ugandan troops into and out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu last March \u2013 1,700 and 800, respectively \u2013 in support of the Ugandan-Burundian African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). [4]<\/p>\n
The Kenyan report also revealed that \u201cExperts say Africa is becoming a strategic battleground between world powers and in particular the US, the European Union, China and Russia,\u201d with the first two \u2013 collectively subsumed under NATO and its Partnership for Peace program (except, for the time being, Cyprus) \u2013 working in unison and the second two expanding oil and natural gas investments on the continent. In addition, Russia and China are competitors of the U.S. and its NATO allies in regards to arms sales to African nations. The piece added:<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to knowledgeable sources, the new security arrangement could be a way to block the continent\u2019s other main arms suppliers \u2013 China and Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the pact gets endorsed by AU member states, it would be a big blow for China and Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn its 2010 annual summit, Nato set itself a target to be a global \u2018security guarantor\u2019 by the year 2020.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n
On February 18 and 19 a delegation of high-level officials from the African Union led by Sivuyile Thandikhaya Bam, head of the Peace Support Operations Division of the AU, visited NATO Headquarters and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium. As NATO reports:<\/p>\n
\u201cNATO and the African Union have developed an increasingly fruitful practical cooperation since 2005\u2026.NATO supported the AU Mission in Sudan [airlifting over 30,000 troops to and from the Darfur region] and is currently assisting the AU mission in Somalia in terms of air- and sea-lift, but also planning support.<\/p>\n
\u201cNATO is also providing\u2026training opportunities and capacity building support to the African Union\u2019s long term peacekeeping capabilities, in particular the African Standby Force.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n
The African Standby Force has been systematically modeled after the NATO Response Force, which was launched with large-scale war games in the African island nation of Cape Verde in 2006. The ASF is a joint project of NATO and U.S. Africa Command, which before achieving full operational capability on October 1, 2008 was conceived, developed and run by U.S. European Command, whose commander is simultaneously NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.<\/p>\n
In 2007 the North Atlantic Council, NATO\u2019s top civilian decision-making body, commissioned a study \u201con the assessment of the operational readiness of the African Standby Force (ASF) brigades.\u201d [7]<\/p>\n
The following year NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Ghana for three days and said \u201cthe military alliance could play an important role in training African soldiers,\u201d in particular that \u201cthe Alliance had agreed to support the African Standby Force.\u201d [8]<\/p>\n
In 2009 the bloc began training African staff officers for the ASF at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. Joint Command Lisbon, the Alliance headquarters tasked to supervise military cooperation with the African Union, has trained African officers to run military exercises, and \u201cNATO has also participated and supported various ASF preparatory workshops designed to develop ASF-related concepts.\u201d [9]<\/p>\n
The same year Norwegian Colonel Brynjar Nymo \u2013 Norway\u2019s embassy in Ethiopia is the informal liaison office for NATO\u2019s relations with the AU \u2013 said that \u201ccooperation between NATO and AU is currently focusing on technical support for the African Standby Force (ASF).\u201d<\/p>\n
The Norwegian embassy\u2019s website at the time stated that \u201cThe Africa Monitoring & Support Team at the NATO Headquarters in Portugal is the operational headquarters for NATO\u2019s work in Africa,\u201d as indicated above. [10]<\/p>\n
Then-NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General Maurits Jochems visited AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, where NATO has a senior military liaison officer and other officials assigned, later in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn his capacity as NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary-General, Ambassador Jochems has frequently visited Addis Ababa for discussions with the African Union\u2026.NATO is providing technical advice, and making available subject matter experts, experiences from international operations, and access to relevant training facilities to the AUC [African Union Commission] in the context of the African Standby Force.\u201d [11]<\/p>\n
This January 26 and 27 NATO\u2019s Military Committee held two days of meetings in Brussels with the chiefs of defense \u2013 the U.S.\u2019s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and his equivalents \u2013 and other military representatives of 66 nations, a third of the members of the United Nations.<\/p>\n
The proceedings discussed ongoing NATO operations in Afghanistan \u2013 currently the world\u2019s largest and longest war, with an estimated 140,000 troops from some 50 nations serving under the Alliance\u2019s International Security Assistance Force \u2013 the Balkans (Kosovo Force), the entire Mediterranean Sea (Operation Active Endeavor), and the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Aden and down the eastern coast of Africa (Operation Ocean Shield).<\/p>\n
During the Military Committee and related meetings a session of the Mediterranean Dialogue was held with military leaders from the seven members of that NATO partnership: Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco and Mauritania. The session occurred as the government of Tunisia\u2019s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had recently been toppled and the demonstrations in Egypt that would bring the same denouement to President Hosni Mubarak were getting underway.<\/p>\n
On February 9 Serbia\u2019s Beta News Agency reported Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac announcing that a NATO strategic conference entitled After Lisbon: Implementation of Transformation will be held in his nation\u2019s capital of Belgrade in June with representatives from 69 countries attending: All 28 NATO member states, 22 Partnership for Peace nations [12] in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and 19 other states. [13]<\/p>\n
In addition to the Mediterranean Dialogue, NATO\u2019s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative program is developing military cooperation with the Persian Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with Oman and Saudi Arabia to be brought on board next. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Qatar from February 15-16 for the two-day Deepening the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative conference with the permanent representatives (ambassadors) of the bloc\u2019s 28 members and senior military and government officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The first and last of them have troops serving under NATO in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
NATO also has a partnership category called Contact Countries. Subject to expansion, the four such nations are all in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The U.S.-led military bloc also maintains the Afghanistan-Pakistan-International Security Assistance Force Tripartite Commission to coordinate war efforts on both sides of the Khyber Pass and has troops and other military personnel assigned to its command in Afghanistan from nations that are not currently among the 70 NATO member and official partnership states: Colombia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore and Tonga.<\/p>\n
The NATO-Russia Council was revived at the bloc\u2019s Lisbon summit in November and NATO\u2019s Kosovo Force (KFOR) is training and equipping the fledgling armed forces of Kosovo, the Kosovo Security Force. [14] NATO, then, has no fewer than 75 members and partners with nations like previously neutral Cyprus slated to follow. [15]<\/p>\n
The African Union has 53 members and will soon have another after the successful independence referendum in Southern Sudan. The AU includes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), conquered by Morocco in 1975 and not recognized by any NATO state, but not Morocco, which withdrew from the AU because of the latter\u2019s recognition and incorporation of Western Sahara.<\/p>\n
Four members of the AU, along with Morocco, are already part of a NATO partnership program, the Mediterranean Dialogue \u2013 Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania and Tunisia \u2013 so a NATO military cooperation treaty with the African Union could gain the Atlantic Alliance 50 new partners.<\/p>\n
That is, the world\u2019s only military bloc can further expand from one that grew from 16 to 28 members in a decade \u2013 1999-2009 \u2013 into one that will become truly international in scope with nearly 100 military partners. Partners and members on every inhabited continent. Two-thirds of the nations in the world.<\/p>\n
Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n Militarization Of Energy Policy: U.S. Africa Command And Gulf Of Guinea http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2011\/01\/08\/militarization-of-energy-policy-u-s-africa-command-and-gulf-of-guinea<\/a><\/p>\n Pentagon And NATO Apply Afghanistan-Pakistan War Model To Africa http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2011\/01\/02\/pentagon-and-nato-apply-afghanistan-pakistan-war-model-to-africa<\/a><\/p>\n New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2010\/05\/05\/new-colonialism-pentagon-carves-africa-into-military-zones<\/a><\/p>\n Japanese Military Joins U.S. And NATO In Horn Of Africa http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/26\/japanese-military-joins-u-s-and-nato-in-horn-of-africa<\/a><\/p>\n NATO: AFRICOM\u2019s Partner In Military Penetration Of Africa http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/20\/nato-africoms-partner-in-military-penetration-of-africa<\/a><\/p>\n AFRICOM\u2019s First War: U.S. Directs Large-Scale Offensive In Somalia http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/12\/africoms-first-war-u-s-directs-large-scale-offensive-in-somalia<\/a><\/p>\n AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of The Entire World http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/22\/africom-year-two-taking-the-helm-of-the-entire-world<\/a> <\/p>\n Notes<\/strong> 2) Ivory Coast: Testing Ground For U.S.-Backed African Standby Force Stop NATO, January 3, 2011 http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2011\/01\/23\/ivory-coast-testing-ground-for-u-s-backed-african-standby-force<\/a><\/p>\n 3) Africa Review, February 18, 2011<\/p>\n 4) Uganda: U.S., NATO Allies Prepare New Invasion Of Somalia Stop NATO, July 28, 2010 http:\/\/rickrozoff.wordpress.com\/2010\/07\/29\/uganda-u-s-nato-allies-prepare-new-invasion-of-somalia<\/a><\/p>\n 5) Africa Review, February 18, 2011<\/p>\n 6) North Atlantic Treaty Organization http:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natolive\/news_61534.htm<\/a><\/p>\n 7) North Atlantic Treaty Organization http:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natolive\/topics_54617.htm<\/a><\/p>\n 8-\u00a0 Ghana News Agency, November 21, 2008<\/p>\n 9) North Atlantic Treaty Organization http:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natolive\/topics_54617.htm<\/a><\/p>\n 10) Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, April 20, 2009<\/p>\n 11) Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, November 4, 2009<\/p>\n 12) Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Russia in sometimes included.<\/p>\n 13) NATO conference in Belgrade announced Beta News Agency, February 9, 2011 http:\/\/www.b92.net\/eng\/news\/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=02&dd=09&nav_id=72629<\/a><\/p>\n 14) KFOR\u2019s Final Firefighting Exercise for Kosovo Security Force North Atlantic Treaty Organization Allied Command Operations February 17, 2011 http:\/\/www.aco.nato.int\/page424203219.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n 15) Push for NATO programme deemed unconstitutional Cyprus Mail, February 19, 2011 http:\/\/www.cyprus-mail.com\/cyprus\/push-nato-programme-deemed-unconstitutional\/20110219<\/a><\/p>\n
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\n1) Argaw Ashine, Nato to sign security cooperation pact with AU Africa Review, February 18, 2011 http:\/\/www.africareview.com\/News\/Nato+to+sign+security+cooperation+pact+with+AU\/-\/979180\/1110238\/-\/4igp64\/-\/<\/a><\/p>\n