{"id":77990,"date":"2016-04-14T01:51:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T01:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=77990"},"modified":"2016-04-14T01:51:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T01:51:21","slug":"u-s-secretary-of-the-navy-makes-first-visit-to-sierra-leone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=77990","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Secretary of the Navy Makes First Visit to Sierra Leone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus (in photo),\u00a0visited Sierra Leone April 6-7, marking his first visit to Sierra Leone since his appointment in 2009.\u00a0\u00a0 His visit focused on strengthening the maritime security partnership between Sierra Leone and the United States.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During his two-day visit, Secretary Mabus met with His Excellency, President Ernest Bai Koroma, and officials from the Office of National Security (ONS), the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration, and the Joint Maritime Committee.\u00a0 Secretary Mabus applauded the Government of Sierra Leone for its commitment to enhance Sierra Leone\u2019s Joint Operations Center,to develop a comprehensive National Maritime Strategy, and to strengthen maritime law and prosecution of violators.\u00a0 He noted that Sierra Leone and the United States share a common interest in promoting maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_77997\" style=\"width: 458px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Pres-Koroma-and-SecNav.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77997\" class=\"wp-image-77997 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Pres-Koroma-and-SecNav.jpg\" alt=\"Pres Koroma and SecNav\" width=\"448\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Pres-Koroma-and-SecNav.jpg 448w, https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Pres-Koroma-and-SecNav-128x86.jpg 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-77997\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus and HE President Ernest Bai Koroma<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In his meetings, he discussed specific ways the United States and Sierra Leone can work together to combat illicit activities, such as\u00a0 trafficking in persons and narcotics, smuggling, piracy, and illegal fishing in Sierra Leone\u2019s territorial waters, and to promote legitimate commerce and sustainable fishing that contribute to Sierra Leone\u2019s economic development and food security.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Secretary Ray Mabus is the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy and the longest serving as leader of the Navy and Marine Corps since World War I.\u00a0\u00a0 More information is available at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.navy.mil\/navybio_ldr.asp?id=505\">http:\/\/www.navy.mil\/navybio_ldr.asp?id=505<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus (in photo),\u00a0visited Sierra Leone April 6-7, marking his first visit to Sierra Leone since his appointment in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":77991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673],"tags":[21156],"class_list":["post-77990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","tag-united-states-secretary-of-the-navy-ray-mabus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}