France, Uganda strengthen military ties

Ambassador Stefanie Rivola, minister Adolf Mwesige, PS Rosette Byengoma and other officials in a group photo.

A French delegation led by H.E. Ambassador Stefanie Rivola visited the ministry of Defence headquarters, Mbuya to strengthen diplomatic relations between Uganda and France.

During the visit, Ambassador Stefanie introduced the Commander of French Forces in Djibouti, Brig Gen Thiery Duquenoy, to the Uganda People's Defence Forces leadership.

The occasion was also used by Uganda to applaud the French training team for completing their sessions at the Peace Support Operations (PSO) Training Centre at Singo for Battle Group XXI.

The minister of defence and veteran affairs, Adolf Mwesige, thanked the team for cooperating with Uganda in maintaining peace and security in the country and Africa. 

Mwesige congratulated the French training team for the tremendous work they are doing at (PSO) to equip UPDF with skills that have enabled Uganda to successfully operate in a very challenging and unpredictable operational environment.

Uganda has continued to benefit from the French training in other areas like training in mountainous environment and is in the final process of finalizing the Status of Forces' Agreement (SOFA) that will define and regulate the activities of French Forces and their joint operations with the UPDF while in Uganda.

This specialized training has enabled UPDF to be adoptive in its approach to the operations, cognizant of the fact that the contemporary threat environment is very fluid and constantly mutating.

Under such frameworks, we hope to further fortify our bilateral cooperation between Uganda and France which will subsequently provide even more opportunities for future strategic engagements beyond the Defence Sector.

In attendance were the French Defence Attaché to Uganda Lt Col George Jacono, Permanent Secretary Rosette Byengoma, Joint Chief of Staff (JCOS) Maj Gen Wilson Mbadi, Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence, International and Regional Affairs (D/CMI/I), Brig Richard Karemire, Chief of Training and Recruitment (CTR) Brig J W Byarugaba and Protocol team.