NATO opens cooperation with Mauritania

  1. Posted on Saturday 26 September 2009 - 10:00
    KingsleyKobo
    Image of KingsleyKobo
    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, has said it would resume full cooperation with Mauritania in the Mediterranean Dialogue security forum, following political progress in that country. Mauritania was suspended last year after a military coup led by now President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
    Mauritania map
    Aziz won the presidential elections held in July and was sworn in a month later. Although opponents have complained of massive fraud, France and other world powers have saluted the progress in Mauritania's democracy.

    Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it was ready for a new collaboration with the West African nation.

    The European Union has also signalled its willingness to renew ties with the Islamic state.

    NATO said its 28 members took their decision "following the political process opened in the country by the presidential elections," Reuters reported.

    The Mediterranean Dialogue forum was launched in 1994 with the aim of enhancing regional security. It groups NATO states with seven non-NATO countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

    NATO’s keenness to step up security cooperation with Mauritania is seen by observers as a way of checking al Qaeda militant activity in the country.

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