Tunisia, Mauritania and Algeria have been members of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue military partnership since 1994. No sooner did the Soviet Union dissolve in 1991 than the U.S. moved to expand NATO globally, including forging individual partnerships with the fifteen new nations emerging from the former USSR, three of whom (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) were brought into NATO in 2004.
Chad and Niger have hosted multinational military forces from several NATO nations in recent years; Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria are increasingly participating in Africa Command/NATO exercises, including Senegal in the 2021 (last held) U.S./NATO Sea Breeze war games in Ukraine and the Black Sea. Libya was bombed by NATO for over six months in 2011 and immediately afterward was touted as a prospective member of the Mediterranean Dialogue. It’s now effectively under military occupation by NATO powerhouse Turkey.
U.S. Africa Command and NATO, essentially coterminous, have effected the military integration of most all nations on the continent under mechanisms such as the African Standby Force and the Africa Partnership Station and regular military exercises like African Lion, Operation Flintlock, Obangame Express and Phoenix Express. The NATO Response Force was inaugurated in 2006 with massive military drills in the African nation of Cabo Verde.
Pentagon, NATO expand military dominance in Africa
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