25 Oct 2015

The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi, says Botswana and Namibia cannot afford to have any elements of conflict because of their strong culture and history of shared values.

Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the 24^th session of the Botswana-Namibia Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) on defence and security which ended on Thursday October 22, Minister Kgathi said the two countries should therefore commit to continue, at all levels, to leverage of such affinities to sustain their economies as well as to peace and security.

He said they should focus on their common enemies such as unprecedented global migration and refugee population growth, as well as other security challenges such as poaching, cyber security, terrorism, corruption, money laundering and human trafficking.

“The basic foundations of our collaboration in the context of our JPC is to have open, focused and frank discussions in all areas of our cooperation, so as to maximize the investments we have made in the capability and readiness of our defence and security agencies so as to respond to the aforementioned global security challenges”, he said.

In this regard, he said the two parties should ensure that they had reliable systems and processes for sharing information and intelligence on internal and external threats to both countries and to also ensure that they regularly undertake joint operations and exchanges between their defence and security agencies.  

Meanwhile, Minister Kgathi said the highlights to some of Botswana’s achievements since their last JPC includes progress on the construction of the Kazungula Bridge, which will not only benefit the two countries but will also, facilitate trade between SADC and other sub-Saharan countries in the north.

Another significant milestone has been the successful hosting of the SADC Summit by Botswana in August 2015 during which Botswana and Namibia heads of state made commitment to strengthen good governance, human rights, rule of law and provide trade and economic growth as well as to ensure there is total peace in the region.   

In his opening remarks, the Minister of Defence of Namibia Mr Penda Ya Ndakolo said Namibia’s foreign policy was premised on the principles of prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts. 

Minister Ndakolo said regionally, Namibia pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with all its neighbours and promoted good-neighbourliness with all the countries in the SADC region, including Botswana.

In addition, he said, Namibia attached great importance to the promotion and fostering of cooperation and friendship with all neighbours in order to work as a collective in preventing conflicts regionally and globally. ENDS