Nouakchott, Mauritania -

French Army Colonel Franck FAUBLADIER, J9 Military PartnershipBranch Chief at the southern Italy-based Allied Joint Force Command Naples, J9 MilitaryPartnership Branch of JFC Naples, IMS, SHAPE and LANDCOM representatives metMauritanian Armed Forces Officials at their General Headquarter on 20 June 2019, during anExpert Staff Meeting.

The aim of this meeting was to discuss about the state of play of the activities planned for 2019and the way to achieve the partnership goals in the future.A new Individual Partnership Cooperation Plan (IPCP) has just been signed and the relatedDirection and Guidance for Military Cooperation (MC D&G) is to be released. These documents confirmed the main priorities agreed between MRT and NATO, focusing on counter-terrorism, border and maritime security, crisis management and peacekeeping operations.

Mauritania is very involved in NATO

MRT is very involved in NATO partnership and increased subsequently the number of activities executed annually. In the context of the development of their Peacekeeping Operations Center,MRT requested more seats in the related individual courses and ask for the possibility to benefit from a Mobile Training Team to optimize the training on this topic.

MRT also confirmed their interest in the OCC E&F Program, with the same objective, and took the opportunity of this meeting to increase their knowledge about it.

This expert staff meeting has come out in a frank and open atmosphere and the MauritanianArmed Forces have confirmed their ambition to develop their military partnership with NATO.