By Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, deputy to the commander for military operations
U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs  Print     Share  

STUTTGART, Germany, 

Apr 7, 2010 —
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BLOGGERS ROUNDTABLE WITH VICE ADMIRAL ROBERT MOELLER, U.S. NAVY, DEPUTY TO THE COMMANDER FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND (AFRICOM) VIA TELECONFERENCE TIME: 9:33 A.M. EDT DATE: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010

SGT. LEE MCMAHON (Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.): Hello. I'd like to welcome you all to the Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable for Wednesday, April 7th, 2010. My name is Lee McMahon with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. And I will be moderating our call today.

A note to our bloggers on the line. Please remember to state your name and blog or organization in advance of your question. And if you have to place your phone on hold during the conversation, please hang up and call back in, because we might hear your hold music.

Today, our guest is U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, U.S. Africa Command, deputy to the commander for Military Operations. Vice Admiral Moeller will discuss U.S. Africa Command, its military- to-military activities with African militaries and the command's efforts to assist African partner nations, continue to increase the development of their military and security programs.

At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Admiral Moeller for any opening remarks. And then we'll go to questions.

Sir, the floor is yours.

ADM. MOELLER: Thank you very much. And good morning to all of you. And thank you very much for this opportunity to speak with you today. (Audio break) -- with you and I much appreciate your interest in U.S. Africa Command. Let me start by offering a few thoughts to kind of set the stage for our discussion.

First of all at the most basic level, U.S. Africa Command was a restructuring of how the U.S. Department of Defense manages its activities with African militaries.
We have consolidated the work of three other commands into one. Excuse me. And the U.S. now has a military command focused on military-to-military activities, with our African partners, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(Coughs.) Excuse me. That is significant, but more importantly, it offers our military partners in Africa one single organization to work with as they seek to improve their capacities and capabilities to provide security for their people.

We focus a lot on capacity-building. That is, in essence, where we spend most of our time. Our programs are designed to respond to what our African partners have asked us to do. We travel frequently, we listen, and we gain a much better understanding of what they would like us to help them with.
We do that in support of an overall U.S. government effort. We do not lead nor create policy. We work closely within the framework of already established U.S. policy.

We also work closely with the Department of State, U.S. embassies and the U.S. Agency for International Development and other U.S. government agencies that are doing work in Africa.

Similarly, we reach out to international partners, including our European allies, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and academia. Their perspectives on Africa are valuable to help us improve our support to those things that our African partners desire.

In our many engagements with African leaders, the consistent message we hear is that African nations want to provide for their own security.
Many welcome our assistance in reaching their goals for security forces that are legitimate and professional, have the will and means to dissuade, deter and defeat transnational threats, perform with integrity and are increasingly able to support international peace missions.

We listened to the leadership of the regional economic communities in the African Union to better understand their desires and priorities. Where we can be supportive of them achieving those priorities, we will do that in a sustained way over time.

Our long-term vision -- when sustained security and engagement occurs in time, the continent becomes more secure, the development that would accompany long-term stability can occur -- the economic development, health development, social development -- such that the people see improvements in their individual situations and their lives.

Certainly, you've read about our work. It comes in the form of maritime programs, such as the Africa Partnership Station and Africa maritime law enforcement program. They have been very successful programs, helping our partners to build their capacity to better deal with maritime issues of all sorts, such as illegal fishing or trafficking of drugs. Those are very important to our partners, especially in West Africa, where illegal activities have a big impact on economies.

It comes in a form of what we call capacity building events, and we conduct hundreds of these each year. We send small teams to dozens of countries and offer our perspective on military topics such as leadership, aircraft maintenance, the importance of an inspector- general program, loading equipment onto aircraft for deployment, the finer points of air traffic control or port security, military law, and the list goes on.

These don't receive much attention, and they are positive, partnership-oriented activities.
I'd like to point out too that even though we are showing and explain how we do business, we are not imposing the U.S. way upon our partners, because it might not be the right way for them. That is for them to decide based on the information they receive not only from us but other sources, as well.

It also comes in the form of exercises which we help organize and facilitate, that are instrumental in promoting regional partnerships, which is a major focus for us, and we get to know each other much better. For example, we're about a month away from Exercise Flintlock, which is an exercise designed to help develop the capabilities of North and West African nations and the U.S. and Europeans who are involved, too. It is designed to enhance the participants' abilities to work together to solve regional security issues.

Another exercise, called Africa Endeavor, was a highly successful communications exercise held in Gabon last year that brought together 25 African nations. This year it will be held in Ghana, and we're looking at now 30 nations to be involved.

Somalia continues to be a prevalent focal point. I include this today because recent press reports have speculated that the U.S. military is actively involved inside Somalia. Those reports are simply not true. I'll reiterate points that have already been made by our diplomats and General Ward. We don't plan, nor direct, nor coordinate the military operations of Somalia's -- (audio break) -- we have not and will not be providing direct support for any potential military offensives. We are not providing military advisers for the -- (audio break) -- our support is best characterized as focused on our primary mandate.

For example, we have supported the State-Department-led -- (audio break) -- training and assistance peacekeeping program called ACOTA. And tens of thousands of African peacekeepers provide military -- (audio break) -- and advisers -- (audio break) -- the nations currently contributing to AMISOM have been recipients of this training.

Finally, what we do in Africa fits into an approved policy framework, of course by the Departments of State and Defense, with specific implementation activities approved by the U.S. ambassador of the country in question -- (audio break) -- request of the host government and in close coordination with U.S. embassies and local, regional and international partners.

So with that, I be -- would be very happy to take your questions.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir. And I just ask that the participants try to have their phones on mute when they're not speaking. I'm hearing some background noise, and I think it's a caller that just called in.

But first let's go to John for the first question.

Q Hello, Admiral. This is John Doyle with the 4G War blog. I wanted to ask you about Senegal. This week, to commemorate their independence, the president there said Senegal was going to be taking over the -- all the French military bases, or at least taking control of the French military bases there. And I'm just wondering if this poses any problem for AFRICOM on -- point one, because of the frequent use of U.S. naval vessels of the port of Dakar, and also if this has any widespread effect on any -- on -- any effect on any other bases, especially the fact that -- the joint U.S.-French base in Djibouti, if there's any long-range effect on it. Thank you.

ADM. MOELLER: Appreciate that question. We've seen those reports. We don't anticipate that that would present any particular challenges. I think, to a degree, their ability to, in fact, do that is, quite frankly, somewhat enabled by the work that we've been able to do over the last several years with the Africa Partnership Station to increase the capacity particularly in those bases that support the maritime component, as well as the other work that we've done in support of the Senegalese armed forces.

Q And is there any trend there where other French bases -- (inaudible) -- and will that have any effect, especially the one in Djibouti?

ADM. MOELLER: We have no indication that there is going to be any change in French policy with regard to Djibouti.

And beyond that, that's, you know, something that I would probably refer to the State Department with regard to French policy decisions with regard to what they may or may not be thinking about with other bases in Africa.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Grim, you have the next question.

Q Thank you. Good morning, Admiral. I wanted to ask you about your civil-military operations. Your bio says that you are involved with the civil-military activities division to a certain degree, and I would like to know what kind of current operations you have and any future operations you feel inclined or able to talk about at this time.

ADM. MOELLER: Most of that incurs our support for USAID, where it makes sense to support their activities across the continent.

In addition, our forces at Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been involved in some civil-military activities in their area of responsibility, working school projects, wells -- digging wells, things of that nature, where the particular country team -- where a country has asked for that kind of support and we have the (concurrence ?) and approval of the -- (audio break) -- team, specifically the U.S. ambassador in a particular country, to support those kinds of activities, again, where it makes sense to -- (audio break).

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Paul, you have the next question.

Q Hi, Admiral. Thanks for talking to us. Paul McLeary from DTI.

I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about the chain of command when it comes to civil-military operations. You know, a country asks for certain assistance. You know, does that go through USAID? Does that go through AFRICOM? How do you guys figure out who does what and coordinate? Thanks.

ADM. MOELLER: It could be both. It could be through USAID and then they would come to us and ask for our assistance if it makes sense to do so. Or in some cases, a country could go directly to our country team, and then they may request us via the State Department and then over to Defense for, let's say, the support of some of our Seabees to do a civil-military project.

Q Thanks. Quick follow-up. And over the past 10 years, and we've kind of -- you know, cultural understanding has become a big part of what the military tries to do in operations like this -- what kind of training are your soldiers and sailors and Marines on the ground getting in, you know, local cultures, mores, things like that?

ADM. MOELLER: Great question. We do a fair amount of that on a fairly regular basis. One of the organizations that we work closely with is the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, and we do a number of seminars with them over the course of the year to increase the knowledge base of the command with regard to cultural and, you know, historic and sociological issues across the continent.

Q Thank you.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

John, you have the next question.

Q Admiral, John McCandless writing for the Navy Memorial blog.

Your physical assets -- I know that you from time to time have ships down in the African countries. Do you have any physical assets that belong to you? Or do they just chop in from the other fleets?

ADM. MOELLER: We go through a process to request forces for all the activities that we do. With the exception of the forces that are at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, those forces are -- you know, exist on the continent obviously.

And so given those particular skill sets, those are ours. But for other matters and activities that come up, we go through a formal process to request forces.

Q One follow-up too.

Probably 10-12 years ago I remember as a reservist some of my folks participating in an annual exercise that involved some ship visits to African nations and also maybe some joint operations with some of the African navies.

Does that still occur?

ADM. MOELLER: It does through -- quite frankly through again the Africa Partnership Station, which is a construct that started back -- excuse me -- back in the fall of 2007 and continues today, where we -- where we work with the littoral nations in developing their maritime capability and capacity, to be able to monitor what goes on in their maritime domains, as well as take action with regard to illegal activities that may be occurring in their maritime domains.

Q Thank you, Admiral.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Did we have someone join the call with a question? (Pause.)
John, did you have another question for the admiral?

Q Yes, I did. Thank you very much.

Admiral, I've been following AFRICOM for a while, and I'm familiar with the joint operations you conduct with the nations in Africa and also some of the cooperative efforts like -- and exercises like Flintlock, with some European and Eastern European countries. And I'm just wondering, given -- we keep reading about the growing presence, mainly economic, of China in Africa and the concern in some sectors that there will be a race for natural resources in the coming years. I'm just wondering: Has there been any kind of formal cooperation or joint
exercises with the Chinese military or navy or any official government -- Chinese government entity between -- with AFRICOM?

ADM. MOELLER: Up to this point in time, there has not been any activities of that sort. But I would tell you that we are interested in the future in possible areas where we may be able to cooperate with the Chinese on one kind of activity or another, where it makes sense to do so, across the continent.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Grim, did you have a question?

Q Yes, sir, you had mentioned in your opening statement that you work with academia. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about that.

ADM. MOELLER: Yeah, we've had a number of seminars in a couple of different places on the continent, as well as here at our headquarters in Stuttgart, where again -- and as well as bringing in some speakers who are subject-matter experts on particular issues or one region or another across the continent. And again, all of this is designed to better inform and educate the headquarters staff with regard to, you know, the overall situation across the continent. And one place that we've also done that -- and matter of fact, are looking to do work again -- is the Kofi Annan peacekeeping center in West Africa.

Q Thank you.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Paul, do you have a question?


Q Yes. As far as Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and the fight in the war against pirates, can you talk a little bit about what AFRICOM is doing on the ground to try to, you know, counter the piracy threat -- you know, not at sea, but, you know, on the ground, before these guys actually get out to sea?

ADM. MOELLER: There are at this point no counterpiracy activities that are occurring, you know, from or in Somalia. There was, you know, some time ago, a U.N. Security Council resolution that authorized that, but no activities of that sort are going on.

What we do is work closely with and in support of U.S. Central Command, who has the primary responsibility and lead for all the -- the majority of the counterpiracy activities that are going on in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

John, do you have a question?

Q No additional questions at this time. Thank you.

SGT. MCMAHON: We're going to have to wrap it up there for today. Thank you all for your participation.

As we do end today's call, I'd like to ask Vice Admiral Moeller if he has any final comments. Sir?

ADM. MOELLER: Well, let me just say that I very much appreciate this opportunity to speak with all of you today. We have a lot of activity going on with our African partners across the continent. And this opportunity to speak with you helps us very, very much to get the word out on all the kinds of things that we are doing to work with our partners such that they are developing African solution to African challenges, which ultimately will result in them having conditions that are secure, stable, and allow for long-term development.

SGT. MCMAHON: Thank you, sir.

Today's program will be available on line at the DoDLive Blogger Roundtable link on DoDLive.mil, where you will be able to access a story based on today's call, along with source documents such as biographies, this audio file and print transcripts.

Again thank you, sir, and thank you to our blogger participants.

This concludes today's event. Feel free to disconnect at this time.

Q If I may, if the admiral's still there, I see that you're a Notre Dame graduate. Where's your hometown?

ADM. MOELLER: My hometown is Bayville, New Jersey, on the Barnegat Bay.

Q Very good, sir. Thank you.

Q Thank you, Admiral.

ADM. MOELLER: Thank you all very much.

END.