The Argentine Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs Maria De Carmen Squeff, has expressed the willingness of Argentine Government to deepen the existing cordial relationship with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in relevant areas such as aircraft acquisition, training as well as surveillance and radar technology.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Director of Public Relations Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola on Thursday, 28 February 2019.
The Argentine ambassador was on a courtesy visit to the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, at the Headquarters NAF, Abuja.
The Ambassador emphasized the strong desire of the Argentine Government to strengthen the relationship between the two countries beyond economic and political collaboration.
She noted that Argentina, beyond being renowned for meat production and excelling in the game of football, among others, has over the years, developed significant capability in aircraft manufacturing and radar technology which has helped the country to better secure its land and maritime borders whilst also contributing immensely to the successes recorded in the area of agriculture.
She explained that the NAF could explore the opportunities inherent in Argentina to strengthen Nigeria’s capability in surveillance and radar technology to further build on the successes so far recorded in the counter insurgency operations in the Northeast of the country.
In his response, the CAS thanked the Ambassador for offering the NAF such a great opportunity to improve on the relationship between the two countries while noting that the Service was always ready to explore all avenues to further professionalize and build needed capacity.
This, he further explained, was the reason why the NAF had invested greatly in the training of its personnel not only locally, but also abroad in countries like the United States of America, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and many others, to acquire the needed skills to perform their jobs more effectively.
Air Marshal Abubakar expressed the willingness of the Service to explore the opportunities presented by Argentina and would make arrangements to send a team of NAF officers to visit manufacturing/maintenance facilities, production plants and military training institutions, amongst other places of interest, to assess the opportunities available in Argentina.
He noted that the Government of Argentina could as well send a team of experts in relevant areas of competencies to engage with NAF specialists here in Nigeria.
