The following is culled from AllAfrica.com 
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American Military Partnership Makes Big Hit in the Gambia

United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
NEWS
April 6, 2006
Posted to the web April 7, 2006

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington, DC

The security partnership between the U.S. Defense Department and The Gambia has come in for praise, in part because of a recent visit to the country by soldiers of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), who shared valuable experiences with their Gambian counterparts.

EUCOM, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, is responsible for military partnerships with most sub-Saharan African nations. It organized the March 13-17 visit to The Gambia in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Banjul, The Gambia, and the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Banjul, the soldiers' conversation centered on operations aimed at helping Africans secure their countries against terrorism as well as counter crimes like illegal fishing and piracy.

The Americans were well received and drew "enthusiastic reactions from the Gambian government and media," the embassy reported.

The Gambian meeting was attended by U.S. Ambassador Joseph Stafford as well as top Gambian civilian and military officials, who later said they appreciated information on security operations, such as bomb disposal and dignitary protection, shared by the Americans.

The event coincided with a successful donation project operated by the Defense Department called the Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP). In The Gambia, HAP spurred the donation of excess U.S. property to nongovernmental organizations, including a vehicle, medical supplies and school and office furniture.

Compared to Defense Department partnerships with larger African nations, the overall U.S.-Gambian military relationship is relatively modest -- funded at between $100,000 and $150,000 a year. The centerpiece of that involvement is the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which brings foreign officers to the United States for professional training at service schools.

In 2003, IMET spent more than $11 million to train more than 1,500 African troops from 40 countries in Africa.

Rear Admiral Hamlin Tallent, director of EUCOM's European Plans and Operations Center, commented on IMET's effectiveness in March 2005, when he told a congressional committee looking into Defense Department anti-terrorism operations: "In Africa, IMET and an expanded IMET have been the most successful programs in promoting professional militaries that respect democracy and human rights."

Tallent told lawmakers that IMET is important because "today's IMET participants are tomorrow's senior foreign military and civilian leaders."

"As a result of the relationships that develop from this program, our return on investment in long-term access and influence is significantly enhanced," Tallent said.

American military strategists generally are focusing more on the continent, especially western and southern Africa, as energy exports from the regions increase.

Following the Gambian visit, EUCOM, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) hosted a regional workshop in Accra called "Maritime Safety and Security in the Gulf of Guinea," a key oil-producing area.

Eleven African nations participated in the March 19-22 workshop, which was conducted in English, French and Portuguese as well as local regional languages. The nations that participated were Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo.

The commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, Admiral Harry Ulrich, said the workshop was designed to bring together leaders from the region and experts in the field of maritime safety and security to share information and exchange ideas, according to a U.S. Sixth Fleet press release.

Security is "a regional problem and requires a regional solution," the admiral said. "These nations need to protect their natural resources and provide for safety and security to their coastlines." To that end, he said, the meeting gave the United States "the opportunity to build effective peer networking among the African professionals and strengthen our emerging partnerships with those nations."

The Accra meeting also was significant, the release added, because it set the groundwork for a fall 2006 ministerial symposium that "will seek to define and develop a collaborative regional strategy for sustained maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea." 

Source:http://allafrica.com/stories/200604070224.html

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