A US initiative launched by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to build closer North-South ties between Atlantic littoral nations is starting to take root in Africa.

African states account for almost exactly half of the 38 countries that have joined the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, a new effort launched on the margins of the UN General Assembly last September. The partners focus on the three interlocking areas of environment, economic development, and science and technology in a bid to “support sustainable blue economies, promote climate resilience, and strengthen maritime governance on issues like illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and trafficking”.

“From the beginning of the [Joe Biden] administration, this has been percolating, this concept of how we think about different structures, how do we continue to maintain old friendships and … build new ones?” says Jessye Lapenn, the senior coordinator for Atlantic Cooperation at the US State Department. “This fits squarely with that approach.”

Following the first two virtual meetings of senior representatives from the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation on 29 November and 15 February, the partners have identified two initial areas of focus, adds Lapenn: Marine spatial planning and expanding scientific cooperation.

Think of the former as “how do you think about your coastline and plan for it in a way that is responsive to community needs, environmental protection and economic development?” Lapenn tells The Africa Report during a recent interview at her office in Washington. As for the cooperation element, she adds, “I think that will contribute to the Atlantic Ocean observation system (and) understanding what’s happening in this enormous ocean that connects us.”

The spatial planning component is being led by Morocco and Angola, along with Spain;  scientific capacity building and exchange by Portugal, the US and others.

“Members also decided to convene a variety of workshops in 2024 on issues of mutual interest such as marine plastic pollution; abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear; food and nutrition security; and innovative financing tools for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources in the Atlantic Ocean,” the State Department said in a press release.

Ties that bind

The partnership grew out of a September 2022 statement on Atlantic Cooperation spearheaded by the Biden administration and joined by nations from Latin America, Europe and Africa along with Canada.

Amid increasing competition from rivals such as China and Russia, the US is keen to strengthen its historic alliance with nations up and down the Atlantic seaboard, which has often proved strategically vital, notably during World War II. The latest take on this long-running coalition adds a North-South dimension that is in keeping with the Biden administration’s stated goal to elevate African voices in the global decision-making architecture.

“This effort fits in well with the themes you’re hearing from the administration broadly around partnership, in two ways,” says Lapenn, a former US ambassador to the African Union and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. “One, African partnership. And two, [Secretary Blinken] often talks about this concept of novel alliances that are fit for purpose. I would contextualise the Atlantic partnership in that space.”

While Lapenn makes clear the partnership isn’t meant to be a defence pact by any means – “we don’t have a mandate on security,” she says – the US has been cozying up to African nations in part to prevent China from establishing a naval foothold on the Atlantic. US officials put pressure on then-President Ali Bongo of Gabon to rescind an offer to station Chinese troops in his country, The Wall Street Journal reported this month, following similar entreaties with Equatorial Guinea a couple of years ago.

Partnership members commit to a shared “commitment to a peaceful, prosperous, open, and cooperative Atlantic region while preserving the ocean as a healthy, sustainable, and resilient resource for generations to come.” All have agreed to engage in collective problem-solving and to uphold a set of shared principles for Atlantic cooperation.

Africa has proved to be particularly receptive. As of last week, 18 countries on the continent had signed up: Angola, Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

“The map … tells a quite good story, which is if you put the ocean at the centre, as opposed to a landmass, what does that show?” Lapenn says. “What does that tell you about a community, about a neighbourhood? And what does that mean for problem identification? […] What solutions are relevant across the Atlantic?”

Eye on Nigeria

Nigeria has emerged as an early test case for the partnership.

The West African country on the Gulf of Guinea was Lapenn’s first stop following the partnership’s September 2023 launch after President Bola Tinubu named the country’s first-ever minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola. Since then she’s visited several African countries including Angola, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa and accompanied Blinken on his trip last month to Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

“The potential of Nigeria and its contributions to Blue economic development are enormous,” Lapenn says.

Blinken agrees. America’s top diplomat announced US support for a collaborative engineering event during his visit to Lagos.

“Our mission in Nigeria is working with our Congress to launch the Nigerian Marine and Blue Economy, a hackathon because one of the things I found very powerful as well is when you put young minds and technology together, they can find solutions and solve problems in ways that some of us who may be a little bit older and more set in our ways and maybe not quite so adept with technology simply can’t do,” Blinken said at the 24 January ribbon cutting ceremony for the new American Corner in Lekki.

“We’ll bring together the government, the private sector, and students to develop solutions to economic and environmental challenges, like addressing plastic pollution or using ocean currents to create energy.”