Prominent U. S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend visited the Republic of Botswana to advance mutual Security Interests.

 

Townsend  wrapped up a multi-country trip to the Southern Africa region, Nov. 17-23. During his travels, he visited civilian and military leaders in Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana.

 

Townsend’s final stop on the trip was to Botswana where he met with several high-level members of the government and senior military members to advance the partnership between Botswana and the U.S. and discuss opportunities to increase multilateral training and military-to-military engagements.

 

General Townsend thanked Botswana leadership for its invaluable contribution to the SADC Mission in Mozambique. He praised Botswana for its exemplary leadership in calling for a SADC assistance mission in Mozambique and demonstrating its commitment by contributing a strong Botswana Defence Forces (BDF) contingent to the operation.

 

General Townsend also discussed strengthening the U.S.-Botswana security partnership with bilateral and multilateral training, educational opportunities for military personnel, and humanitarian crisis response preparedness in southern Africa.

 

General Townsend and Lieutenant General Placid Segokgo, Commander of the BDF, discussed disaster, humanitarian, and crisis responses and explored ways to enhance military-to-military engagement to strengthen bilateral responses to emergencies.