By Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, Deputy to the Commander for Military Operations;
Michelle Michael, AFN Producer
U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs  Print     Share  

STUTTGART, Germany, 

Apr 6, 2010 — VICE ADM. ROBERT MOELLER: (In progress) -- the planning team from then-Secretary Rumsfeld was to -- we would have the same responsibilities as all other geographic combatant commands but also had the DOD lead for supporting all other U.S. government agencies that have activities of one sort or another going on.

So, in our daily activities what we're doing is working with our African partners to help them develop the capability and capacity to be able to meet their security and stability challenges, but then also look for opportunities where it makes sense to do so to support our other U.S. partners that have activities that further contribute to overall long-term conditions for stability across the continent.

MICHELLE MICHAEL: Why exactly did the Department of Defense go ahead and create the command, going way back?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yes, two fundamental reasons. One was the growing strategic importance of all things related to Africa, and also a recognition that the way we were previously organized within defense, where we had three COCOMs working with our African partners, was neither the most effective nor efficient way to be responsive to the needs of our African partners.

Now, with one command we are clearly in a position to do that. As a matter of fact, as we go around the continent, we tell the Africans that not only are your needs and priorities our number-one priority; it's our only priority.

MS. MICHAEL: So, sir, there was not one particular event that led to the creation of AFRICOM.

VICE ADM. MOELLER: No, this was -- it was a function of needing to be much more effective and responsive to the needs, priorities and perspectives of the African partner -- of our African partners.

MS. MICHAEL: I have here in front of me the AFRICOM mission statement. It says, quote, AFRICOMM -- quote -- conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities and other military operations.. Would other military operations in the future include potentially sending U.S. combat forces to the continent?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Should there be a requirement to do so, and if that became a U.S. government decision, then perhaps that would be the case. But, again, what we're working to do is to work with our African partners to actually get ahead of some of those challenges so they are in a position to be able to be much more responsive to emerging conditions that could lead to conflict, with the idea of addressing the conditions so that conflict does not result.

MS. MICHAEL: AFRICOM obviously is a very new type of command. How is the new structure working, and is it better having other U.S. government agencies at the table?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Well, it certainly is with regard to our responsibility -- again, because we were directed to support other U.S. government agencies.

So we are a headquarters organization. We have subject matter experts at fairly senior and mid-grade levels such that we have the knowledge of what those other U.S. government agencies do so that collectively we can determine how best to support what they do.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, can you simplify that for me and give me an example of some of those other government agencies that work with AFRICOM?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yes; for instance, USAID. They are involved in many development kinds of projects and things like that. And so, if, in a particular country or region, there is a role for us to support what they do to make their activity more effective, then we collaborate on that and figure out how we might be able to do that.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, you've been with AFRICOM since the beginning --

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yes.

MS. MICHAEL: -- so you have seen it grow into what it is today, so to speak. Can you give us an idea of some of the challenges you might have faced during the early days and compare, you know, to what it is today?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Well, clearly one of the early challenges in establishing a new geographic command was that -- I mean, we needed to resource it with people. And so, there was a lot of work to be done to essentially get people from commands literally around the world. And with everything else going on, that was a fairly significant challenge -- no small feat to be able to pull all that together.

And then of course there was the -- you know, the commitment that the department needed to be made to resource. That is to say, from a money standpoint, what it would take to be able to pick up the activities that heretofore had been under the responsibility of either EUCOM, CENTCOM or PACOM such that we could execute those activities with our African partners.

MS. MICHAEL: Is it safe to say that in the early days AFRICOM was a bit controversial?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Somewhat so, yes, because unfortunately there were some misunderstandings and misperceptions out there that perhaps the establishment of the command meant that we were going to be deploying thousands of troops to the continent and establishing bases across the continent. That was never the department's intent then and it certainly is not now.

In much the same way that was done under EUCOM, CENTCOM and PACOM, if we, with our regional -- or our African partners, decide to do a particular activity -- we bring let's say an exercise. We bring forces in for that event; the event is over and they leave.

MS. MICHAEL: There was a lot of skepticism also in the beginning. How do you measure that now? What are the thoughts?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: We've made great progress in that regard and that's due to getting around the continent and sitting down with the leadership, both the political and the military leadership, as well as others, and explaining, in fact, what we're about and, more importantly, what we're not about.

I mean, there was a view early on that somehow that we were going to be setting what U.S. policy is in Africa. Again, that was never the intent. What we do is we are in support of U.S. government policy, which is set by, you know, the State Department and ultimately approved by the national leadership.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, what does success look like for AFRICOM?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Success is defined in seeing measurable progress across our African partners with their ability to be able to meet their own security and stability challenges, and we're making headway in that through bilateral activities that we conduct with our partners, as well as some regional activities with regard to exercises and things of that nature.

For instance, in North Africa, Exercise Flintlock is designed to enable our North African partners to have their capabilities to be able to deal with the challenges -- the counterterrorism challenges across the north.

MS. MICHAEL: That was going to be my next question, is could you give me a few examples of some of those projects that are going on?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yeah, that would be one of them. In East Africa we work with the countries that comprise EASTBRIG, which is the regional organization there, to enable them and facilitate their ability to be able to deal with some of the extremist challenges as well as humanitarian assistance and/or disaster kind of scenarios. And so we're looking to do that, you know, broadly across the continent on both a bilateral and a regional basis.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, we have obviously seen a big emphasis in the maritime arena. Would you explain the Africa Partnership Station and how it works with African navies, and why that's so important?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yes. The Africa Partnership Station, the concept for that actually originated out of discussions that the leadership of the Gulf of Guinea nations raised several years ago, recognizing that if they were going to achieve long-term conditions of security, stability and economic development ashore, they needed to address the challenges in the maritime domain off their shores.

And so, after several conferences they came forward to the U.S. and asked for assistance, and that manifested itself in what we now call the Africa Partnership Station, where we work with these countries to develop the maritime skills they need to be able to both see what's going on in their maritime domain and then deal with the challenges of illegal trafficking, piracy, narcotics flows and things like that.

And so, we are making progress literally around the continent. Last year we expanded the Africa Partnership Station concept to East Africa as well as West Africa.

MS. MICHAEL: That goes actually very well into what I was getting ready to talk to you about with the USS Nicholas capturing five pirates in the Indian Ocean. How is U.S.-Africa Command tackling that issue of priority specifically?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Well, we work very closely with our U.S. Central Command partners as they have the responsibility for most of the waters off East Africa. So we support their activities with some surveillance capability such that vessels working in their waters have information where some of this pirate activity is occurring.

MS. MICHAEL: Somalia -- if we can talk about Somalia for a second -- continues to be, in some eyes, a failed state. What, if anything, is the U.S. Africa Command doing to stabilize that region?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Well, we have no direct involvement in that as such. I mean, we clearly support -- you know, the U.S. government policy is to support the TFG, the governing body, in Somalia, but we have no direct involvement with regard to what the TFG military forces or AMISOM.

What we have done with the AMISOM forces is support the -- you know, their peacekeeping training efforts by providing mentors to the training for those countries' forces. But, again, we have no direct -- no U.S. Africa Command forces on the ground in Somalia.

MS. MICHAEL: I think there were conflicting reports about that.

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yeah, but there are no forces there.

MS. MICHAEL: Okay, AFRICOM headquarters -- obviously right there in Stuttgart, Germany -- any plans to move that to the African continent? That's of course been a big discussion everywhere and there's always all kinds of speculation.

VICE ADM. MOELLER: No, there are no plans to move to the continent. We are here in Stuttgart for the foreseeable future, which I think is a very, very long time.

MS. MICHAEL: The last time I was in Africa was Ethiopia. There was a lot of talk about stabilizing that region, the Horn of Africa -- Djibouti, Ethiopia. Apparently it was an area where insurgents could easily move through. What's the progress that we've made in that part of Africa?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Well, again, we work with our African partners in East Africa to help them develop the skills that they need to be able to monitor the activities that are going on in their respective countries, as well as across the region overall. And so, we are seeing their capabilities and capacity to do that improve.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, is there anything that I have left out that you would like to add -- something that we didn't touch on?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: No, I don't think so. Again, since the early planning days of, you know, late fall of 2006, you know, the establishment of the command and our maturing efforts over the last couple of years have been, I think, you know, quite significant.

And for me personally it's been, you know, really the highlight of my career to have been involved in this since the earliest days and to see the command mature to where we are now and, more importantly, see the progress that we're making with our African partners in giving them their -- working with them to develop their capability and capacity to meet their challenges.

MS. MICHAEL: It must look totally different than the beginning days.

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Yeah, very much so. Exactly. Exactly.

MS. MICHAEL: Sir, thank you so much for your time. If there's nothing else --

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Thank you very much. I appreciate it very much.

MR. : Thank you, sir. Really appreciate it.

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Sure.

MR. : Is there anything else that we missed? The only thing I was thinking would be to describe three examples of success maybe that you've seen.

MS. MICHAEL: Sure. Sure.

MR. : Would that be okay?

MS. MICHAEL: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

MR. : I think you could probably say the APS, perhaps the AMLEP example of, you know, where the illegal fishing was -- the Natural Fire perhaps where the regional approach in East Africa -- maybe you could even talk about South Africa, some of the successes we've had, unless you are uncomfortable with that. I know that's a big, you know, issue down in that part of the world, but maybe just three examples of success that you have seen that are --

VICE ADM. MOELLER: Okay, sure.

MR. : -- tangible, because people are always talking about an ethereal -- we want tangible.

MS. MICHAEL: Well, yeah, I mean, people do see the mil-to-mil training and, you know, we talk a lot about what's going on there, but what are actual successes that we can already see on the continent?

VICE ADM. MOELLER: The first example that I would offer would be what we've seen over the last two-and-a-half to almost three years now with the Africa Partnership Station, and working with the West Africans and the East Africans in terms of developing their capacity to be able to control the maritime domain off their respective coasts. We've seen a lot of progress in that area, such that they can now respond themselves to the many challenges across the maritime domain.

Another area, and also in the maritime area is work that we've been doing called AMLEP, which is a program where we bring in Coast Guard capacity to work with the littoral nations to specifically give them the capability to be able to do Coast Guard-like functions in their waters, which is, again, very, very critical to long-term security and stability ashore.

We've had also success with regional exercises. The most recent was Exercise Natural Fire, which occurred last fall in Uganda, which works with the -- many of the countries of the region and, quite frankly, across the continent to give them the capability and capacity to be able to respond to humanitarian disaster kinds of scenarios as well as some counterterrorism kind of scenarios. And they are very, very much maturing in their skill sets to be able to do -- to be able to respond to those kinds of challenges as they present themselves.

Last week I was in South Africa for discussions with our South African partners, and we have a lot of activities going on with our South African forces and their U.S. counterparts in both the maritime area, Air Force, ground forces. And so, we have very, very strong relations with our South African partners, and so we're making good progress down there as well.

STAFF: All right.

MS. MICHAEL: Thank you, sir.

STAFF: Thank you so much, sir.

(Cross talk.)

(END)