Boeblingen, BW, Germany -- U.S. Marine, European and African Naval infantry senior leaders met today through a video conference call to discuss collaborative opportunities. During the meeting, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa commander, Maj. Gen. Tracy W. King, and Senegalese Naval Chief of Staff, Rear Adm. Oumar Wade, hosted multiple virtual planning discussions to organize future exercises and endeavors between these nations.
The Naval Infantry Leaders Symposium-Africa, is a multinational, Africa-focused forum, designed to bring together partner nations with Marine forces and naval infantries to develop interoperability, crisis response capabilities, and foster relationships that will improve Africa’s Maritime domain security.
More than 16 countries throughout Europe and Africa attended the symposium sharing ideas to enhance cooperation toward common interests to promote stability on the coasts of Africa.
“Promoting maritime security on the African coast is a shared responsibility and we will come up with shared solutions,” said Maj. Gen. King. “None of us can do this alone, we must do it together.”
Plans of attending the NILS-A conference in Dakar, Senegal were halted to mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19. However, this event is set to be in person next year to ratify the NILS-A charter discussed during the virtual conference. The NILS-A charter is the first step in building international partnership for maritime security on the coast of Africa.
This forum increases allied and partner naval infantries’ understanding of the operating environment, the disparate perspectives on maritime security, and identifies ways to increase capability, capacity, and interoperability.
“We are Marines working with Marines,” Maj. Gen. King said. “We are very proud of what we accomplished today and this is a powerful first step in finding shared solutions.”
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For additional information contact the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, Communication Strategy and Operations officer at mfea_commstrat@usmc.mil.