A delegation from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) yesterday discussed with officials in Mauritania enhancing military and security cooperation, the Mauritanian News Agency reported.
The agency said Defence Minister Hanena Ould Sidi met with the alliance’s delegation headed by the Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Javier Colomina, in the Defence Ministry’s headquarters in Nouakchott.
The meeting was attended by officials from both sides, the agency added, without giving further details.
The talks come two days after another meeting was held by the Mauritanian Defence Minister in Nouakchott with the General Delegate in charge of armaments at the French Ministry of Armed Forces, Emmanuel Chiva, to “enhance cooperation in the defence sector”.
Last week, the head of NATO’s defence capacity building programme for Mauritania, Frederique Jacquemin, said it is the alliance’s duty to “preserve stability in Mauritania at any cost”.
Jacquemin pointed out that Mauritania is NATO’s only partner country in the vast Sahel region, adding that Nouakchott “is gaining a deeper knowledge of all the security challenges facing the Sahel region”.
NATO has recently begun to show increasing interest in Mauritania, as the Russian presence in the African Sahel region presents a threat to NATO’s southern flank, according to political observers.
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