Botswana and the United States (US) have taken another step towards closer military cooperation, with the US Space Force participating in a joint exercise with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) for the first time.

Exercise Southern Accord 2026, held in Gaborone from 10 to 15 August, brought together the BDF, US Africa Command (known as AFRICOM, which is responsible for American military operations across the African continent), the North Carolina National Guard, and the US Space Force. Training focused on military planning, intelligence, defensive cyber operations, and space operations.

The Space Force component is particularly significant, with Botswana personnel working directly with US Space Force specialists on incorporating space capabilities into military planning.

The development places Botswana’s recent military diplomacy in sharp contrast with that of neighbouring South Africa.

In January this year, South Africa hosted Exercise Will for Peace 2026 off its coast. The Chinese-led naval exercise involved South Africa alongside warships from Russia and Iran, with the United Arab Emirates also participating.

The result is a striking regional juxtaposition.

South Africa, the region’s largest economy, is deepening its military ties with Washington’s principal geopolitical adversaries in China, Russia, and Iran.

Botswana, meanwhile, is moving deeper into practical military cooperation with the US, including areas at the technological frontier of modern warfare, such as cyber operations, intelligence, and space.

The BDF and North Carolina National Guard have been formal partners under the US State Partnership Program since 2008. Southern Accord 2024, the previous iteration of the military exercise between the US and Botswana, concentrated on areas including humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping, and medical evacuation. The 2026 exercise moved cooperation further into joint military planning and operations involving different arms of the military.

South Africa formerly participated in a similar programme with the US called Shared Accord, a joint military exercise designed to improve cooperation between South African and American forces in areas including peacekeeping, humanitarian relief, and military interoperability. South Africa hosted editions in 2011, 2013, 2017 and most recently in 2022, when US and South African forces trained together in KwaZulu-Natal. The exercise has not been repeated in South Africa since, and in practice the partnership has been allowed to lapse as Pretoria has moved further towards America's geostrategic adversaries.

Botswana has also been strengthening its conventional military links with Washington.

The US has agreed to provide Botswana with additional C-130H Hercules military transport aircraft, building on an aircraft already transferred to Botswana in 2024.

AFRICOM is explicit about the purpose of Southern Accord, saying that American security cooperation seeks to “align African nations with US strategic objectives”, and describes the exercise as part of an effort to strengthen “willing and able African partners” against illicit activity and “malign actors”.

Howard van Vranken, the American ambassador in Gaborone, said: “Southern Accord 2024 strengthened how we train together. Southern Accord 2026 strengthened how we plan together.”

Botswana’s officials made much the same argument. Major General Molefi Seikano told the opening ceremony that “no single nation, no matter how powerful”, can meet today’s security realities alone, and that the challenges of the time require synchronised responses and vibrant partnerships. At the closing ceremony, Major General Simon Motswana Barwabatsile said the week had brought “not only the strengthening of operational capabilities” but also the building of trusting relationships founded on shared purpose.