Kenya has embarked on a plan to seek military cooperation with US President Donald Trump.
This comes as Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma next week leads a Kenyan delegation to America for an inaugural Bilateral Strategic Dialogue.
The meeting set to be held between May 7 and 8 is said to be key to elevating Kenya-US relations to a Strategic Partnership.
According to Juma, the dialogue will focus on Economic Prosperity, Trade & Investment, Defence Cooperation, Democracy & Governance and Multilateral & Regional Issues.
She said the BSD was established during the meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Trump held in Washington on August 27, 2018.
“This is with a solemn aim to step up collaboration that grows the economy through generating jobs and building technical capacity,” a statement from the Ministry read.
It said, “Further, Kenya and the United States will seek to deepen economic ties through maximising Kenya’s trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and explore trade and investment opportunities post AGOA in 2025”.
On Defence Cooperation, the Ministry said Kenya will seek to enhance cooperation in strengthening military and strategic responses to domestic and regional security challenges.
“On Democracy, Governance and Civilian Security, Kenya and United States will deliberate on issues of common interests including shared democratic values, anti-corruption efforts and increased civilian security cooperation,” read part of the statement.
With regards to multilateral and regional issues, Kenya and United States will pursue stronger diplomatic partnership which provides a platform to discuss cooperation and coordination required to uphold a rules based global order.
This includes collaboration in multilateral fora such as the United Nations as partnerships that contribute to a free and open world.
Juma will then sign the agreement to guide the Strategic Dialogue and the Security Governance Initiative (SGI) Joint Country Action Plan to enhance civilian security and governance cooperation.
A Joint Communique will be issued at the end of the meeting.
