Pentagon chief Mark Esper on tour in the Maghreb
Secretary of State for Defense Mark Esper, September 11, 2020. REUTERS / Erin Scott
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Secretary of State for Defense Mark Esper begins a three-day visit to North Africa on Wednesday, September 30.
Mark Esper is making his first trip to the African continent.
He will talk about anti-jihadist cooperation.
First step, this Wednesday: Tunisia.
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Mark Esper has a meeting with President Kaïs Saied, and his Minister of Defense.
On the program: strengthening ties between the United States and Tunisia and the fight against jihadist organizations.
And it should also be about the activities of China and Russia on the African continent.
The Pentagon chief also plans to visit the American military cemetery in Carthage, near Tunis, where American soldiers who died in North Africa during World War II are buried.
After Tunisia, Mark Esper will take charge of Algeria on Wednesday, for the first visit to Algiers by a Pentagon chief since that of Donald Rumsfeld in 2006. His mission: to deepen cooperation on regional security issues.
There too, he will be received by the president, Abdlemadjid Tebboune, a week after the visit to the Algerian capital of the head of Africom, the American military command in Africa.
How to interpret this first visit to Algeria by an American Minister of Defense since 2006?
For several reasons, explains Yahia Zoubir, professor of geopolitics at Kedge Business School.
In particular the fact that “
the United States is aware that Algeria is decisive in Libya, in Mali;
and there is great respect from the United States to Algeria on the role that Algeria plays in the Sahel, which the United States recognizes
”.
Yahia Zoubir
Magali Lagrange
Finally, the third and last step for Mark Esper: Morocco, Friday, with which the United States already maintains close relations in the field of security.
No details, for the moment, on the interviews planned in Rabat.
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