promotion and protection of democracy. Senegal's democratic system has persisted for decades and has become more democratic following the Cold War, garnering the attention of the U.S. as a model state for West Africa. The United States manages several programs or aid packets meant to increase democratic diplomacy. One of these programs is conducted by the United States Information Agency which help hold workshops and training with Senegalese news federation and reporters to increase the independence and power of the press in the country. The relationship between the United States and Senegal is often limited by the country's strong ties with France, preventing deep connections from forming without diplomatic conflict. The French have been critical of recent "hard" diplomacy actions by the U.S., including AFRICOM and limited the nation's African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) to the training of African forces in West Africa. Intergovernmental Organizations ECOWAS Senegal is a Zone A member of ECOWAS since its formation in 1975 with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos and the largest contributor of troops in the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). According to the ECOWAS official website, Senegal's affairs in ECOWAS are currently overseen by Madame Aissata Tall Sall, Senegal's Foreign Minister. Senegal holds 6 seats in ECOWAS's Community Parliament, which assigns seats based on member states’ populations. The Trans-West African Coastal Highway was an ECOWAS project which made significant infrastructure developments that connected Senegals’ Capital, Dakar, to other major cities in the surrounding region, such as Lagos in Nigeria and Nouakchott in Mauritania. Additionally, ECOWAS oversaw the construction of a 1.9 km bridge connecting Senegal to its interior neighbor, the Gambia, and has begun plans to construct a bridge connecting Mauritania and Senegal. Not only did these projects expand Senegal's physical infrastructure and access to its neighbors, but they are projected by officials to be prosperous for economic development through trade expansion. On July 10, 2014, ECOWAS member states agreed to begin an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU. The implementation of the EPA, along with the adoption of a common external tariff (CET) for ECOWAS members, impacted the Senegalese economy's ability to levy custom tariffs on EU imports, thus reducing revenue collected by the Senegalese government, but increasing remuneration in the formal Senegalese labor market. Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998) Senegal contributed about 2,000 troops upon the request of President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau