Atlantic Cooperation

The Atlantic Ocean connects and sustains us like never before.  More commercial and shipping traffic crosses the Atlantic than any other ocean.  More data travels along its underwater cables than any other ocean.  It is home to more than half of the world’s fisheries. 

Atlantic states are also linked by common challenges.  As the ocean warms and sea level rises, those changes threaten marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them – jeopardizing livelihoods and exacerbating food insecurity.  More frequent and powerful storms are devastating coastal communities, including here in the United States.  Seaweed blooms are growing to unprecedented sizes, creating public health challenges, harming tourism, and smothering coral reefs, seagrass beds, and the animals that inhabit them. 

Recognizing the Atlantic’s importance to our lives and our collective future, the United States joined three dozen countries on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023 to launch the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation.  An unprecedented number of coastal Atlantic countries across Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean have come together to tackle shared challenges and uphold a set of shared principles. 

Each member of our Partnership is committed to the interconnected goals of advancing a peaceful, stable, prosperous, open, safe, and cooperative Atlantic region – from north to south and east to west – and to conserving the Atlantic Ocean as a healthy, sustainable, and resilient resource for generations to come.

The following countries have adopted the Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation and joined the Partnership: Angola, Argentina, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Canada, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Iceland, Ireland, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Republic of the Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Suriname, Togo, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay.