African Diplomacy Observer

The ten member States of the Economic Community of Central African States -ECCAS- (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe), plus a non-member State, Togo, carried out on 17 November 2007 a common military exercise in Chad. The exercise code-named "Bahr el-Gazel 2005" took place in the Chadian town of Moussoro, located at approximately 250 Km away from the capital N’djamena and rassembled a light brigade of 1,600 troops made of companies from the ten ECCAS members States.

The exercise was undertaken in presence of presidents Denis Sassou Nguesso from Congo, François Bozize from the CAR, Omar Bongo Ondimba from Gabon and Joseph Kabila president of the DRC and Head of the ECCAS. According to the organization Committee, this exercise was expected to be an inter-army multilateral peacekeeping simulation which envisioned to be an occasion for exchanging experiences on peacekeeping techniques, as well as an instrument of regional defence aims at preventing and resolving peacefully conflicts in Africa.

Source: Afriquecentrale.info

Portuguese Minister of Defense, Nuno Severino Teixeira, carried out a-four-day-official visit of work to Angola in the framework of the two countries bilateral relations in the area of military cooperation. During this visit that lasted from 14-17 October 2007, the Portuguese military delegation was expected to have official talks on Monday 15 October 2007 with its counterpart from Angola, headed by the Angola Minister of Defense, General Kundi Paihama. The same day, a reception of the delegation by the first Vice-president of the National Assembly, João Lourenço, was scheduled.

On 16 October, the Portuguese Minister visited a military camp where are located special forces in the North of the capital, Luanda where he was supposed to inspect ongoing projects in that base of the Angola Armed Forces (FAA) in the framework of the Military Technical Commission that comprised Portugal.

The Portuguese Minister of Defense was also due to take part to a colloquium on "Europe-Africa and Challenges to International Security".

Source: AngolaPress

On 14 May 2007 was held in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) an annual consultation between the African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (REC), the G8 and other partners to discuss many issues such as the establishment of the AU Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the next G8 Summit to be held next June (6-8) in Helligendamn (Germany). The consultation was co-chaired by the ambassadors of Nigeria, in its capacity as Chairperson of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) for May 2007 and Germany, in its capacity as the Chair of the G8 for the year 2007. This meeting was also taking place within the framework of the Joint Africa/G8 Plan to enhance African capabilities to undertake peace support operations.

Source: African Union website.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egyp, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, met with the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on 5 March 2007 at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels (Belgium). During this visit, the first of an Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs ever organized to NATO, the NATO Secretary General and the Foreign Minister discussed regional security situation and practical issues related to the future of NATO-Egypt cooperation; a cooperation rooted in the context of the Mediterranean Dialogue, decided at the June 2004 Istanbul Summit, between NATO and its Mediterranean Dialogue partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

The Mediterranean Dialogue aims at contributing to regional security and stability, achieving better mutual understanding and dispelling any misconceptions about NATO among Dialogue countries and includes political and practical (including military) dimensions such as:

- Regular high level political consultations between NATO and Mediterranean Dialogue partners;

- Visits by NATO Senior Officials, including the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General, to Mediterranean Dialogue countries;

- Seminars, workshops and other practical activities in the fields of public diplomacy (information and press activities, scientific and environmental cooperation), civil emergency planning, crisis management, border security, small arms & light weapons, defence reform and defence economics, as well as consultations on terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD);

- Invitations to Dialogue countries to observe - and in some cases participate - in NATO/PfP military exercises, attend courses and other academic activities at the NATO School (SHAPE) in Oberammergau (Germany) and the NATO Defense College in Rome (Italy), and visit NATO military bodies.

Source: NATO