The United States has launched an expansive new cooperation pact encompassing dozens of countries spanning the Atlantic Ocean in Europe, Africa, and the Americas in an effort to significantly ramp up economic, environmental, and scientific collaboration across the entire Atlantic region.
Dubbed the “Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation,” the agreement was finalized on the sidelines of the high-profile United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York this week, strategically occurring on the eve of President Joe Biden’s major address to the global body scheduled for Tuesday.
The unveiling of the ambitious pact comes as the Biden administration urgently seeks to strengthen relationships with developing nations across the Atlantic, while also attempting to rally critical financial support and investment for these countries. This is seen as an explicit counterweight to China’s rapid emergence as a dominant economic force and source of infrastructure funding across Africa, Latin America, and beyond.
The partnership also aims to directly respond to stinging criticism that the United States’ focus has become disproportionately centered on aiding Ukraine militarily and financially since Russia’s full-scale invasion, coming at the expense of struggling developing countries in the “Global South” facing enormous challenges from COVID-19, soaring interest rates, crushing national debts, and climate change fallout.
Importantly, the Atlantic alliance does not contain formal security or explicit military components, unlike NATO which encompasses North Atlantic and European countries. However, it does pointedly include firm pledges to ensure the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of all partner countries across the Atlantic remains free from external interference or coercion.
A senior Biden administration official explained the genesis of the partnership reflects recognition that north and south Atlantic nations have for too long been treated as separate geopolitical entities, rather than a united region with many shared transnational problems amenable to collective problem-solving.
Among the key issue areas slated for enhanced cooperation are illegal fishing, natural disasters preparedness, and cracking down on illicit trafficking of people, arms, and narcotics across the Atlantic. By better coordinating on these fronts, the partnership aims to foster sustainable democratic growth across the entire Atlantic zone to counter ballooning Chinese influence.
