Throughout his time as EUCOM and NATO top military commander Jones touted what he described as ongoing and permanent US and NATO naval presence in the Gulf.
In June of 2006 NATO helds its first large-scale military exercises in Africa, in fact initiating the NATO Rapid Response Force, north of the Gulf in Cape Verde.
Below are accounts of the drills:
"Hundreds of elite North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops backed by fighter planes and warships will storm a tiny volcanic island off Africa's Atlantic coast this week in what the Western alliance hopes will prove a potent demonstration of its ability to project power around the world." (Associated Press, June 21, 2006)
"Seven thousand NATO troops conducted war games on the Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde on Thursday in the latest sign of the alliance's growing interest in playing a role in Africa. "The land, air and sea exercises were NATO's first major deployment in Africa and designed to show the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice. "'You are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability,' said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after NATO troops stormed a beach on one of the islands on the archipelago in a mock assault on a fictitious terrorist camp. "NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Jones, the alliance soldier in charge of NATO operations, said he hoped the two-week Cape Verde exercises would help break down negative images about NATO in Africa and elsewhere." (Reuters, June 22, 2006)
Jones may have inveigled Reuters with concerns about NATO's public image, but its rival agency was more forthcoming:
"NATO is developing a special plan to safeguard oil and gas fields in the region, says its Supreme Allied Commander on Europe, Gen. James Jones.
"He said a training session will be held in the Atlantic oceanic area and the Cabo Verde island in June to outline activities to protect the routes transporting oil to Western Europe....Jones said the alliance is ready to ensure the security of oil-producing and transporting regions." (Associated Press, May 2, 2006)
That same month Jones was in the northern tip of the Gulf, in Monrovia, the capital of the one nation on the continent that seemed at first willing to host the future AFRICOM's headquarters after Washington assisted in the toppling of the Charles Taylor government and the installation of former US-based Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to head its successor.
A local paper reported:
"A United States military delegation today met with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at her Executive Mansion office in Monrovia. The delegation was headed by General James Jones of the US Marine Corps who is also the head of the US government European Command. "Also with General Jones today were seven members of his delegation, who were in full US military uniform. General Jones reaffirmed his government's support in assisting the Liberian government in the formation of the new Liberian army. He said some members of his command, were due in Liberia soon, to begin the training of the new Liberian army, which is expected to begin in July. (African News Dimension, June 2, 2006)
Two months before the US State Department reported on another of Jones' African plans, the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Security Initiative, and thereby tied together a few threads in Washington's African tapestry:
"'Left unattended, political instability in Africa could require reactive and repeated interventions at enormous costs, as in the case of Liberia,' Jones said." (Washington File, April 7, 2006)
And in the intervening month Jones reminded readers that he still wore two commanders' caps and that his energy and broader geopolitical strategy encompassed, still, both south and east:
"'Our strategic goal is to expand...to Eastern Europe and Africa.... -"'The United States is not unchallenged in its quest to gain influence in and access to Africa.'" (Stars And Stripes, March 9, 2006)
And so it remains.
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