Angola has become the first African country to partner with the Ohio National Guard in its State Partnership Program.

Built on the accomplishments of existing partnerships with Hungary, since 1993, and Serbia, since 2006, the Ohio National Guard looks to support and enhance U.S. engagement, cooperation, and assistance in Africa through this new relationship.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Defense State Partnership Program involves 115 nations paired with an assigned U.S. state or territorial National Guard serving as a mentor and colleague to its affiliated nation.

This expansion of the partnership to include Angola increases the number of African nations participating in the State Partnership Program to 26.

The program, created in the 1990s to assist former Warsaw Pact and Eastern European nations emerging from Soviet influence, is based on the National Guard establishing military- to-military partnerships that expand to military-to-civilian and civilian-to-civilian relationships.

At its core, the State Partnership Program promotes U.S. regional security cooperation intentions and Department of Defense goals while supporting key government, economic, education, and social objectives.

The Republic of Angola is a country on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and population and is the seventh-largest country in Africa.

It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda. It has an estimated population of 39million.

The California National Guard is partnered with Nigeria, the New York Guard with South Africa, the North Dakota National Guard with Ghana, the Michigan National Guard with Liberia, the Vermont National Guard with Senegal, the Utah National Guard with Morocco, and the Wyoming National Guard with Tunisia.

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