The commander of United States forces in Europe met President Thabo Mbeki in Johannesburg on Friday for talks on America's new security strategy in Africa to combat terrorism, military officials said.
"Africa is the logical place to be concerned about," General James Jones said after the meeting.
America sees Africa as a soft target for terror networks due to weak institutions, poor security and long stretches of unguarded coastline.
US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were bombed in 1998. An Israeli hotel in Mombasa, Kenya was blown up in 2002 minutes after a failed missile attack on an Israeli plane taking off from the town's airport.
Continues Below ↓
| 'Africa is the logical place to be concerned about' |
Mbeki told Jones that "fighting terrorism is very much on the African agenda," his spokesperson said.
Jones has been touring Africa both in his capacity as commander of the US European Command (Eucom) and the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
Washington hopes to secure "forward operating locations" to enable it to react to security threats in Africa without setting up permanent bases, a US military source said.
Officials have not confirmed reports that Washington is looking at sites in Mozambique and Sao Tomé and Principe off West Africa.
A US embassy statement said only that Jones's visit and earlier ones to Morocco and Nigeria were significant "as the US military and Nato are assessing Africa's increasing strategic importance". - Reuters
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Cape Argus on February 23, 2004
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
