Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Expresso das Ilhas
Published on 2024-03-28 10:47:14
The Atlantic Center, an initiative of the Portuguese government that brings together 23 countries, advocates for the creation, in Cape Verde, with the support of national partners, of a training center in techniques for boarding, search, and seizure on ships.
The goal is to “strengthen the capacity for action and prevention” of authorities from different countries facing the Atlantic, in waters where illicit trafficking occurs, stated Rear Admiral Nuno de Noronha Bragança of the Portuguese Navy, coordinator of the Atlantic Center, during a visit to Praia.
The visit to the capital aims to promote political dialogue for the implementation of projects, including the plan to establish the training center.
Just last week, Cape Verde deported four Spaniards detained on the island of Santiago, after they fled from a vessel intercepted in the Atlantic with 330 million euros worth of cocaine on board.
Cape Verde is one of the founding countries of the Atlantic Center in 2021 and has a “strategic location” to host the training center that has been presented this week to different ministries and partners such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) or the European Union.
The Atlantic Center serves as a catalyst, bridging institutions, hoping that the project and its training activities will materialize. The expected result is increased security and surveillance in the Atlantic, “a vast space of sovereignty, the responsibility of jurisdiction of each country,” which can benefit from “a logic of collaboration” and “growing multilateralism to combat” illicit activities, justified Noronha Bragança.
The center could make Cape Verde a hub, concentrating training activities.
Asked about the possibility of countries lacking resources to invest in the initiative, the Rear Admiral mentioned that the training center should rely on partnerships that allow it to be “sustainable” and provide “continuous training.”
The goal is for the project to move forward this year into an implementation plan.
The center requires “some level of investment,” with the accounts still being finalized, “but its sustainability” should be “ensured by all,” since its utility is recognized, he justified.
The Atlantic Center has also promoted the training of operators responsible for the Multinational Maritime Coordination Center of Zone G, inaugurated in January in Praia, allowing them to work “in other centers in the region.”
The Atlantic Center is a working and reflection group created in 2018 by Portuguese initiative, involving the ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, and formally took shape with the entry of 16 countries in 2021. It currently brings together 23 partner countries, seven European, 12 from the West African coast, three countries from South America, and one country from North America, who share a common interest in strengthening all aspects of security in the broader sense in the Atlantic space.
Noronha Bragança led the permanent task force group for West Africa in 2018 and 2019, as well as Open Sea missions in the Gulf of Guinea region, in a curriculum that includes military advisory roles with the Portuguese state and Brussels.
Read the original article(Portuguese) on Expresso das Ilhas
