US embassy cable - 05PARIS2788

UNCLAS PARIS 002788 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, MASS, XA, FR 
SUBJECT: ACOTA AFRICAN PEACEKEEPING TRAINING TEAM MEETS 
WITH FRENCH MILITARY 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  On 18 April 2005, representatives of the 
African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance 
(ACOTA) program office met with officials of the French Joint 
Staff at the Ministry of Defense to exchange views on our 
respective peacekeeping capacity enhancement efforts in 
Africa.  The ACOTA team noted the meeting was in the spirit 
of the May 1997 tripartite Agreement that called for 
cooperation among the U.S., UK, and France on efforts to 
enhance African peacekeeping capacities.  Major General Bruno 
Neveux provided an update on the RECAMP program while the 
ACOTA team outlined current ACOTA priorities.  The exchange 
underlined that the RECAMP and ACOTA programs are 
complementary.  RECAMP focuses on exercising strategic and 
operational military staffs an on political-military training 
for African military officers.  The ACOTA program focuses on 
full-scope training for the basic building blocks of African 
peacekeeping operations -- peacekeeping battalions.  General 
Neveux expressed gratitude for the ACOTA team's consultative 
initiative and said such consultations would be continued. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  The ACOTA team (Barbara Hughes, Department of State ACOTA 
Program Coordinator, and Richard Roan, ACOTA Training 
Manager) and Emboffs met with Major General Bruno Neveux, 
Chief of Force Training of the French Joint Staff, and two 
RECAMP planning officers.  They noted the Tripartite 
Agreement of 22 May 1997 in which the U.S., UK, and France 
agreed to collaborate on efforts to enhance the peacekeeping 
capacities of African nations.  The ACOTA team sought the 
French perspective on ACOTA efforts as well as the French 
vision for future RECAMP exercises. 
 
3.  General Neveux expressed gratitude for the ACOTA team's 
visit and initiative in seeking to exchange views on program 
plans.  He noted that RECAMP and ACOTA had been complementary 
programs since their inception and expressed confidence that 
the two programs would continue to be mutually supportive. 
He stated that RECAMP would continue to focus on training 
African strategic and operational military staffs and 
providing politic-military training for African military 
officers.  The General said that while the basic principles 
underlying RECAMP have not changed, there is a new focus on 
leadership issues.  He stated that the African militaries in 
general are weak in the areas of command and control, 
logistics, and work at the political-miltary level.  He did 
note that he is studying the question of whether or not to 
continue concluding their RECAMP cycle with a large field 
exercise as in the past.  He reported that Cameroon was under 
consideration as the next (2006) RECAMP exercise but that a 
final decision had not been made. 
 
4.  The ACOTA team described ACOTA's primary focus on 
training the "working end" of the African peacekeeping 
spectrum -- providing deploying peacekeeping battalions with 
staff and field training.  General Neveux agreed with the 
critical importance of training peacekeepers and noted that 
ACOTA's work to prepare peacekeeping battalions well 
complemented RECAMP's efforts at strategic and 
political-military training.  The ACOTA team welcomed French 
officers to visit future ACOTA training in Africa.  General 
Neveux reciprocated with his commitment to welcoming U.S. 
officials to RECAMP events.  It was agreed to continue to 
seek synergies in our work toward a common goal, although the 
General added that we should not be "too nave or optimistic" 
on such prospects. 
 
5. The ACOTA team has cleared this message. 
WOLFF