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Collectively shaping the future of German-Namibian friendship

by Thomas W. Keller

High-ranked Namibian delegation visits Berlin on the invitation of the administration of the German Bundestag and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

From February 17th until February 23rd 2019, the Namibian speaker of parliament Peter Katjavivi together with a delegation consisting of members of parliament and administrative staff, visits Germany’s political hub Berlin. In cooperation with the administration of the German Bundestag, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung invited fourteen high-ranked senior officials of the Namibian parliament for a study visit to Berlin.

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The visit is part of a larger cooperation project between the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the parliament of Namibia. In October 2018 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a parliamentary support programme was signed by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, in the presence of chairperson Norbert Lammert, and the National Assembly, in the presence of the speaker of parliament Peter Katjavivi. The visit to Berlin was made possible due to a long-standing and close relationship between the parliament and the Namibia-Angola office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Therefore, it came as no surprise when the speaker of parliament, upon his first official meeting, compared the visit to a visit with friends. He further emphasized the importance of a dialogue of friendship between Namibia and Germany for successfully shaping the future together.

The study visit consists of personal meetings, amongst others, with the president of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, and the rapporteur in the CDU/CSU-faction in the German Bundestag on Africa and the African Union, Markus Koob. Besides the aforementioned, the delegation is meeting the SADC Parliamentary Group of the German Bundestag as well as visiting the constituency office of MP Klaus-Dieter Gröhler. The program was tailored to the Namibian parliament’s expressed needs, enabling its members to learn more about certain areas of the German Bundestag, such as public relations, human resources and general working procedures. Apart from an exchange of information, the goal of the visit is to encourage the dialogue between national counterparts concerning current national and international political issues and challenges.

Lammert highlighted in a meeting with the delegation that a collective shaping of the bilateral friendship between the two countries would be a core topic. The chairperson also underlined in this context the important role national parliaments will play.

Contact person: Thomas W. Keller / Tilmann Feltes

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Contact

Thomas W. Keller

Thomas W

Resident Representative

thomas.keller@kas.de +264 61 225-568 +264 61 225-678

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About this series

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.