Defence Diplomacy is the set of international activities mainly based on dialogue and cooperation carried out by the Ministry of Defence at a bilateral level with our allies, partners and friendly countries to promote the fulfilment of the defence policy objectives in support of State’s external action.
These activities are developed through a Defence Diplomacy Plan whose main axes are:
Within the development of this Plan, activities such as the following are considered:
Over the past two decades, the Alliance has developed a network of structured partnerships with the countries of the Euro-Atlantic zone, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, as well as individual relationships with partners around the world. To date, NATO pursues dialogue and real cooperation with its partner countries, and actively engages with other international players and organizations on a wide range of political and security issues.
These relationships have been reflected in different forums and frameworks: the NATO-Russia Council; the Mediterranean Dialogue with the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia) and of which Spain has been one of the main promoters; the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with Persian Gulf countries (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates); the NATO-Ukraine Commission and the NATO-Georgia Commission; as well as the rest of the countries that participate in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership. NATO also cooperates regularly with other international organizations, such as the UN, the EU and the OSCE.
NATO’s Strategic Concept identifies “cooperative security” as one of NATO’s three essential core tasks. It states that the promotion of Euro-Atlantic security is best assured through a wide network of partner relationships with countries and organisations around the globe. These partnerships make a concrete and valued contribution and provide political support to the success of NATO’s fundamental tasks. An effort to reform NATO's partnership policy was launched at the Lisbon Summit to achieve more inclusive, flexible, meaningful and strategically oriented dialogue and cooperation.
In recent years, several cooperation activities have been developed on the African continent within the framework of Defence Diplomacy and as a contribution of the Armed Forces to the State's external action.
These initiatives have been reflected in the deployments of naval units that carry out maritime security and cooperative security operations with various countries in West Africa.
Spanish navy vessel’s objective is to develop the capabilities of African nations in the control of their own territorial waters through joint training exercises, which is why the vessel, initially, made stops in Mauritania, Gabon, Ghana , Senegal and Cape Verde, which were later expanded to other countries in the region.
The Defence Diplomacy Plan is a set of activities, mainly based on dialogue and cooperation, carried out by the Ministry of Defence at the bilateral level with partner and allied countries to prevent conflicts or strengthen security capacities.
These deployments allows for the presence in areas of vital interest to the security of Spain, as indicated in the National Security Strategy in reference to the Gulf of Guinea.
Spanish military help increase security in this volatile region of West Africa.
The Gulf of Guinea is considered one of the places in the world capable of destabilizing security in general.
The atmosphere of instability is led by terrorist groups or criminal gangs dedicated to drug or human trafficking, not forgetting the rise of piracy in those waters.
These circumstances make the region a fundamental element for the Security and Defence of Spain and Europe.
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The offshore patrol vessel (OPV) 'Tornado' calls at the port of Luanda
2023/11/20Luanda, Angola
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More informationMaritime action ship P-44 'Tornado' calls at Tema port in Ghana
2023/11/02At sea
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More informationThe maritime action ship 'Tornado' calls at the port of Abidjan
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