Malawi and Mozambique have opened the 17th session of their Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security in Blantyre, with a focus on strengthening regional security, border management and combating cross-border crime.
The session, which runs for the next four days, has brought together defence and security institutions from the two sister nations.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, Gift Dula, chairperson of the commission’s officials’ meeting and Principal Secretary for Defence, said the session is an important bilateral mechanism that strengthens the long-standing ties between Malawi and Mozambique.
He said it gives the two countries a platform for dialogue, cooperation, information sharing and coordinated responses to shared defence and security concerns.
Dula noted that delegates would review the integrated plan approved during last year’s session in Maputo, Mozambique, where both countries reaffirmed their commitment to deeper cooperation against common security challenges.
“Last year’s integrated plan targeted cross-border crime, specifically prioritising and intensifying the fight against human trafficking and drug smuggling, as well as systematic intelligence and border security information-sharing”, said Dula.
Co-Chairperson of the session’s officials’ meeting, Mozambique’s Principal Secretary for Defence, Casimiro Augusto Mueio, said the meeting symbolises the strengthening of the cooperative relationship, constituting a “platform for dialogue” on matters of common interest in defence and security, with a focus on internal, regional and international challenges.
“Mozambique and Malawi have one common goal. The goal is to allow our citizens to live peacefully while undertaking life-transforming activities such as trade,” he said. “However, we have one common enemy who for a long time has been trying so hard to destabilise us in so many ways.”
He said traffickers and drug dealers use the borders of the two countries to facilitate illegal trade.
The session has three sub-committees: Defence, Public Security and State Security.
Over the next four days, delegates from the three committees will review the implementation of previous resolutions and recommendations, as well as exchange views on political, defence and security developments affecting the two countries.
