Nigeria: France, Nigeria Collaborate to Contain Terrorism, Piracy

The France government, yesterday, pledged to collaborate with Nigeria in a renewed bid by both countries to contain terrorism and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

France made the pledge as the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd), sought more proactive intelligence gathering mechanism and technological support to drive new information sharing regime in aid of the military campaigns in the country.

He sought the renewal of the existing bilateral military agreements between Nigeria and France to reflect real-time security related needs of the two countries.

Speaking during a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Defence in Abuja, the Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, while requesting for technical interface between the two parties to examine critical areas of mutual benefits in the proposed rebirth of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the countries, gave assurances that her country would reinforce efforts to end terrorism in Nigeria and piracy in Gulf of Guinea.

The French envoy, who was accompanied on the visit by the Defence Attache, Embassy of France in Nigeria, Colonel Guillaume Dujon, thanked the defence minister for the audience aimed at strengthening the existing bilateral agreements between the two countries.

In his remarks, Magashi said Nigeria and France were strategic partners and pointed out that the partnership needed to be rejigged to take it to higher levels of operability and deliverability.

The defence minister, therefore, welcomed a more proactive intelligence gathering mechanism and technological support to drive new information sharing regime in aid of the military campaigns in the country.

The minister went further to ask for technological transfer to galvanise the nation’s military productive capabilities in the sector.

While requesting for technical interface between the two parties to examine critical areas of mutual benefits in the proposed rebirth of Memorandum of Understanding, she gave assurances that her country would reinforce efforts to end terrorism in Nigeria and piracy in Gulf of Guinea.

A statement issued by the minister’s office, said the ambassador commistrated with the Nigerian Armed Forces over military personnel, who paid the supreme price in the line of duty, defending the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.