NIGERIAN SECURITY DIALOGUES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002130 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/FO, AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL, INR/AA, PM/RSAT; ADDIS ABABA FOR MISSION TO AU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PARM MARR MCAP NI SUBJECT: NIGERIAN SECURITY DIALOGUES REF: A. WAUTLET-PETRONE E-MAIL OF 11/12 ¶B. STATE 112900 ¶C. ABUJA 1757 ¶1. (SBU) Security dialogues by the U.S. Government with the Government of Nigeria (GON) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are multifaceted and often informal. Embassy compiled the following information, the substance of which we forwarded earlier via electronic-mail message (ref A). -------------- BILATERAL DIALOGUES -------------- ¶2. (SBU) At the Ministerial level, the Ambassador has met with three Nigerian Ministers of Defense during the last twelve months. She provides the GON with quarterly updates on U.S.-Nigerian defense cooperation activities. The Defense Attache Office (DAO) regularly meets with senior military officials in useful bilateral working groups to review and assess needs and training. The U.S. Mission also sends diplomatic notes to the Defense Minister whenever the U.S. proposes major engagement and to request approval for visits by senior U.S. Defense Department officials to Nigeria. ¶3. (SBU) An Office of Security Cooperation (OSC) representative meets routinely, at least monthly, with the Nigerian Defense Staff and each of the Service Staffs to discuss bilateral engagement opportunities. The capstone event for this coordination involves a U.S. Africa Command - Nigeria Planning Conference to discuss upcoming events and develop longer-term plans. The first of these conferences occurred in Stuttgart in September 2009, with the next one scheduled for Abuja in March 2010. Each of the Nigerian Services attend the conference, with the Nigerian Defense Staff heading the Nigerian Delegation (ref C). These meetings will become more routine and formal as our bilateral military-to-military engagement progresses. ¶4. (SBU) Also during the Africa Command - Nigeria Planning Conference, OSC representatives meet with representatives from each of the Nigerian services to coordinate military-to-military engagement and State Partnership activities. California serves as Nigeria's partnership state. The California National Guard provides civilian-to-military technical assistance and is developing a plan to assist Nigeria in Coast Guard search and rescue. This year, the program became more formal as the Africa 
Command hosted a meeting in Stuttgart with the Training Director of each Service Chief. OSC holds monthly meetings with members of the MOD Joint Services Division to discuss in-country OSC programs during the following quarter. ¶5. (SBU) The Department's Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) sponsors an annual Peacekeeping Planners Conference, which provides an African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) Program Training Strategy Update (TSU). Under ACOTA, the U.S. military provides training and equipment to host nations participating in United Nations (UN) or Africa Union (AU) peace-keeping missions. The purpose of the next conference will be to discuss the fiscal-year 2010 training schedule, number and types of Nigerian units to receive ACOTA training, and construction and infrastructure support needed at Nigeria's Peacekeeping Qand infrastructure support needed at Nigeria's Peacekeeping Operations Center in Jaji, Kaduna State. ACOTA provided funding for training and equipment worth about 11 million dollars during fiscal year 2009. ¶6. (SBU) Other ad-hoc dialogues include senior leader visits, such as by the Nigerian Chief of Defense Intelligence (CDI) to Africa Command and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in October 2009, by the Nigerian Navy Chief of Staff to the International Seapower Symposium in October 2009, and by the Nigerian Air Force Chief to the U.S. Air Staff in October ¶2009. OSC personnel are coordinating a visit by the Nigerian Army Chief of Staff to U.S. Army Africa Command (USARAF) in Italy and anticipate receiving invitations from the Nigerian Air Force and Navy for counterpart visits to Nigeria. ABUJA 00002130 002 OF 002 -------------- REGIONAL DIALOGUES -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Ad hoc dialogues occur among Mission Nigeria, the State Department's Office of Regional Security Affairs (AF/RSA),the Africa Command, with ECOWAS, and the AU. No set dialogues -- such as fixed monthly or annual meetings, conferences, or seminars -- occur with ECOWAS counterparts, despite several U.S. invitations to do so. Ambassador remains in regular dialogue with the ECOWAS President on all regional issues, and ECOWAS invites U.S. Mission personnel to attend all ECOWAS Ministerial and Summit meetings held in Abuja. In addition, the U.S. Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) regularly partners with ECOWAS on conferences covering specific subjects. For example, the U.S. co-hosted an AU-ECOWAS Rapid Deployment Capability (RDC) Conference in Abuja in October 2009 to help the AU integrate the ECOWAS Standby Force into a proposed AU-wide Standby Force. We facilitate dialogue with and resources from Africa Command for ECOWAS, such as including ECOWAS in the next Africa Partnership Station in 2010. We have asked for assignment of a temporary-duty (TDY) officer to ECOWAS to enhance coordination. ¶8. (U) Embassy coordinated this telegram with ConGen Lagos. SANDERS