African Lion 2023: US experts highlight Morocco-US strategic partnership for peace, stability

The African Lion 2023 military exercise reflects the strength of the strategic partnership between Morocco and the United States which serves peace and stability and stands against growing security threats in the region and in Africa, American experts underlined in Washington.

“What makes this year’s African Lion special, last month US President Joe Biden warned that we are seeing disturbing levels of new threats in the region with Iran delivering drones to polisario through Algeria”, which, in turn, is buying billions and billions of arms, the experts said during the program “With Morocco from Washington” broadcast Sunday on Medi1TV.

David des Roches, retired US Army Colonel and professor at the National Defense University, noted that this combined joint exercise organized each year by the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and the US Armed Forces contributes to cementing military cooperation and exchange between the Armed Forces of different countries in a bid to promote security and stability.

“When you look at how the US views military operations overseas, the big issue is interoperability… we need to have partners and allies,” like Morocco, David des Roches underlined, highlighting the importance of Morocco-USA cooperation in the face of “malign groups” which threaten security in the Sahel and the Sahara.

Commending the FAR’s high level of professionalism and capacities, the American expert stressed the importance of the humanitarian events held within the framework of the “African Lion”, mainly the deployment of a field medical-surgical hospital supervised by a Moroccan-American multidisciplinary team.

In the same vein, George Landrith, a chronicler, said that the “African Lion” is the biggest exercise in Africa, organized by Morocco and the United States, with the participation of African and European countries.

“I think this is an important exercise, it’s obviously the biggest one, it’s important every year but I think this year it’s more important than ever because of the growing threats in the region,” he explained. This “sends a message to the adversary of security and peace and freedom,” he added.

The military exercise took place from June 5 to 16 in several regions of Morocco with the participation of 6,000 soldiers representing 14 countries. The annual event helps consolidate Moroccan-American military cooperation and strengthen exchanges between the Armed Forces of different countries in a bid to promote security and stability in the region.

“With Morocco from Washington” is a monthly program produced in DC and hosted by former ambassador and State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli.