The Minister Delegate to the Presidency, in charge of Defense (Mindef), Joseph Beti Assomo, on Wednesday August 09, 2023, inaugurated the 2nd Conference relating to military cooperation.
It was “under very high instructions from the President of the Republic, Supreme Head of the Armed Forces”, and in the presence of the Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations, in charge of Relations with the Commonwealth, Felix Mbayu. The conclave ended two days later, in Yaoundé.
The Records Room of the Ministry of Defence, served as a setting from Wednesday August 9 to Friday August 11, 2023, for the holding of the 2nd Cameroon Military Cooperation Conference. The works were opened by Joseph Beti Assomo the Mindef. The latter also had at his side, the Secretary of State in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Galax Landry Etoga. Senior officers of the Cameroonian Army were present at this opening ceremony of the Conference, headed by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General of the Army Corps, René Claude Meka. The main theme of the work was “Cameroonian military cooperation in the era of the return to the multipolarization of power in international relations”.
Context
For several years, the Cameroon faces security challenges, including the terrorist attacks of the Nigerian jihadist sect Boko Haram, as well as the Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West regions of the country, where obscurantist forces are trying in vain to partition the country, against the professionalism of the defense and security forces.
Aims
Having mentioned the context of the holding of the work by Joseph Beti Assomo, it emerges that the current Conference is in the wake of the first, held in September 2017. That of this year aims to take stock of the cooperation military of Cameroon with partner countries and organizations. It is in fact a critical assessment of the path travelled, with an international view, in order to readjust, by mobilizing means which make it possible to achieve the objectives targeted, for an even more peaceful and stable Cameroon. .
For the soldiers recently appointed within the missions and military offices abroad, it is a question, before their deployment, of exchanging with the defense attachés, history to soak up the problems of peace, intelligence and security . The impregnation of the code of conduct in the diplomatic environment for the promoted, is also at the heart of the concerns of the work of Yaoundé
Geopolitical issues and challenges
And with regard to the security crises that the country is going through, Joseph Beti Assomo the Mindef, in his address at the opening of the meeting, indicated that “these geopolitical challenges impose on us a coherence of thought and action. This is why the work of this second conference of Cameroonian military cooperation, whose theme is: Cameroonian military cooperation in the era of the return to the multipolarization of the power of international relations, will allow us to take stock of our activities and outline prospects for the future”. And to continue that “the opportunity to collect the perception, to understand the stakes of our various partners, and to give you general and specific orientations. In short, a roadmap, you who animate our defense partnership on a daily basis follow the authority of our heads of diplomatic missions”.
Traditional partnerships strengthened by Paul Biya
Joseph Beti Assomo mentioned that under the leadership of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, military cooperation has been strengthened with traditional partners, and new alliances, forged. Anything which, according to Mindef, is worth “in Cameroon, notoriety and respectability in Africa and outside the continent”.
The threat of the enlightened of the diaspora…
During the three days of work, defense attachés and newly appointed military personnel in various Cameroonian diplomatic representations abroad had to think about strategies aimed at finding effective responses to activism against the backdrop of robbery, fringe of the Cameroonian diaspora, particularly in Europe and the United States. Joseph Beti Assomo was also pleased with the improvement in Cameroon’s representation in international organizations responsible for security issues, particularly within the United Nations, AU, European Union and ECCAS.
