Annville, PA – Pennsylvania National Guard (PANG) and Côte d’Ivoire military officials announced this week that the PANG has been selected to partner with Côte d’Ivoire through the National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP).
This will be the PANG’s second SPP partnership. It has partnered with Lithuania since 1993.
“As our 33-year partnership with Lithuania has demonstrated, these relationships grow and strengthen over time, creating bonds and forging relationships well beyond this important military connection,” said Governor Josh Shapiro. “Pennsylvania’s world-famous chocolate companies source cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire through the Port of Philadelphia — and our commonwealth will host their national team for at least two World Cup games later this year. My administration looks forward to working with Côte d’Ivoire and our other international partners to improve security around the world and grow our economy right here at home."
“The Pennsylvania National Guard welcomes Côte d'Ivoire as our newest partner in the State Partnership Program as we mark an important step in expanding cooperation and mutual understanding between our forces,” said Maj. Gen. John Pippy, Pennsylvania’s adjutant general and head of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. “These partnerships play a critical role in strengthening national security by building trusted relationships and promoting regional stability. We look forward to training and serving with our valued counterparts in Côte d'Ivoire.”
With nearly 18,000 soldiers and airmen, the PANG is one of the largest state National Guards in the U.S. It is headquartered at Fort Indiantown Gap, near the state capital Harrisburg, and has units in more than 60 communities across the commonwealth.
Côte d’Ivoire is a West African nation with a population of about 32 million. Its political capital is Yamoussoukro, though its largest city and economic capital is the coastal city of Abidjan.
It has a strong, growing economy and is the world’s largest exporter of cocoa, which is used to make chocolate. Pennsylvania is home to several major chocolate makers, including Hershey, Mars and Godiva, and the Port of Philadelphia is the primary entry point for cocoa imported to the U.S.
“The State Partnership Program between the Côte d'Ivoire Armed Forces and the PANG is a strategic opportunity to transfer operational and crisis management skills, strengthen national security, improve the resilience of Ivorian communities and create indirect economic synergies around the cocoa and chocolate industry,” said Côte d’Ivoire Armed Forces (FACI) Chief of Defense General Lassina Doumbia.
Formal signing ceremonies will be conducted later this year in the United States and Côte d’Ivoire.
The SPP now includes 107 partnerships with 116 nations around the globe. The program evolved from a 1991 U.S. European Command decision to set up the Joint Contact Team Program in the Baltic Region with Reserve component soldiers and airmen.
A subsequent National Guard Bureau proposal paired U.S. states with three nations emerging from the former Soviet Bloc and the SPP was born, becoming a key U.S. security cooperation tool, facilitating cooperation across all aspects of international civil-military affairs and encouraging people-to-people ties at the state level.
This cost-effective program is administered by the National Guard Bureau, guided by state department foreign policy goals, and executed by the state’s adjutant general in support of combatant commander and U.S. Chief of Mission security cooperation objectives and Department of War policy goals.
Through SPP, the National Guard conducts military-to-military engagements in support of defense security goals but also leverages whole-of-society relationships and capabilities to facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, economic and social spheres.
Learn more about the DMVA by visiting us online at www.pa.gov/agencies/dmva or follow us at www.facebook.com/padmva or www.x.com/padmva.
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