{"id":16799,"date":"2022-01-25T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T11:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paulkagame.com\/?p=16799"},"modified":"2022-01-26T11:16:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:16:22","slug":"11th-african-air-chiefs-symposium-kigali-25-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=16799","title":{"rendered":"11th AFRICAN AIR CHIEFS SYMPOSIUM  Kigali, 25 January 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Excellency, Peter Vrooman, United States Ambassador to Rwanda<\/li>\n<li>General Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe \u2013 Air Forces in Africa<\/li>\n<li>Air Chiefs &amp; Senior Officials<\/li>\n<li>Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am pleased to join you today to open the 11th Africa Air Chiefs Symposium.<\/p>\n<p>First, allow me to warmly welcome you to Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>I also wish to commend the United States Air Forces in Europe \u2013 Air Forces in Africa, for the continued support to African air forces.<\/p>\n<p>Strategic airlift is a critical component for the maintenance of peace and security on the continent, particularly for peacekeeping operations.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, our airlift capabilities are limited, and this affects the ability of African air forces to respond rapidly to security threats.<\/p>\n<p>Many of Africa\u2019s emerging security challenges are transnational in scope, and no one country has the resources to respond to them alone.<\/p>\n<p>We must therefore prioritize partnerships. The benefits of working together are clear.<\/p>\n<p>First, partnerships can enable African air forces to have access to quality aircraft for the transportation of personnel and equipment.<\/p>\n<p>Second, partnerships can create opportunities for specialized training for pilots and maintenance crews.<\/p>\n<p>And lastly, partnerships can help modernize air transport infrastructure, such as air traffic control facilities and air-to-ground communication.<\/p>\n<p>As Africa\u2019s air forces work towards enhancing military effectiveness, the continent\u2019s evolving security landscape must be taken into account.<\/p>\n<p>Threats are increasingly being posed by highly mobile forces, and as such, airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance are critical.<\/p>\n<p>Funding will continue to be a challenge, but we cannot afford to let that override our collective commitment to stability on the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s continue working together to see tangible results.<\/p>\n<p>To conclude, I want to emphasize that the discussions in the following days should be held within the wider context of Africa\u2019s socio-economic development trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>Security and prosperity are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one, without the other.<\/p>\n<p>I trust that the symposium will facilitate this, and that even more countries will join the Association of African Air Forces.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, thank you for gathering here in our capital. You are most welcome, and I hope you will enjoy your stay here, as you go about the business that has made us gather here today.<\/p>\n<p>I thank you for your kind attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excellency, Peter Vrooman, United States Ambassador to Rwanda General Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe \u2013 Air Forces in Africa Air Chiefs &amp; Senior Officials Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen I am pleased to join you today to open the 11th Africa Air Chiefs Symposium. First, allow me to warmly welcome you to Rwanda. I also wish to commend the United States Air Forces in Europe \u2013 Air Forces in Africa, for the continued support to African air forces.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speech","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16804,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions\/16804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}