Migration from the Sahel region is one of the main threats Nato is currently facing, officials said, as the alliance rounded up a historic summit in Madrid on Thursday.
The alliance's southern neighbourhood, particularly the Middle East, North Africa and Sahel regions, has faced interconnected security, demographic, economic and political challenges over the years.
“Instability beyond our borders is also contributing to irregular migration and human trafficking,” a Nato official told a press briefing attended by The National.
Climate change, fragile state institutions, health emergencies and food insecurity have all contributed to the flow of migration.
"It provides a fertile ground for the proliferation of non-state armed groups, including terrorist organisations,” the official said.
“It also enables destabilising and coercive interference by strategic competitors,” he said.
In 2020, the Sahel region was mentioned for the first time in a Nato summit communique.
"Our heads of state noted jointly in this declaration that the deteriorating situation in the Sahel region matters to native collective defence, and security," he said.
Nato has been trying to "build a stronger relationship and interest for the region that is of strategic importance for many of our allies" the official said.
By working with allies in the region Nato is a part of alleviating the problem of migration.
"Nato’s deployment in the Aegean Sea has helped curb illegal and dangerous human trafficking, together with Greece, Turkey, and the EU," Nato said.
The alliance has a centre for the south in Naples, Italy, to "improve our ability to anticipate regional crises and respond to them quickly".
For years Nato has been helping its allies in the Middle East and North Africa to build up their own defence capacities.
During the Madrid summit Spain urged its Nato member states to consider a bigger role for the alliance in North Africa and the Sahel.
Nato's leaders held a final summit session, focused on the south, on Thursday morning, after almost two days of talks dominated by Russia's war in Ukraine.
Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he did not rule out a Nato intervention in Mali if needed, after the alliance's summit statement cited terrorism among the "hybrid threats" that hostile powers can use to undermine its stability.
"If it were necessary and if it posed a threat to our security, we would do it," he told local radio station RNE. "We don't rule it out."
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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The flights
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The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
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