News
Statement on Former President Ian Khama’s trip to Estonia: Report in the Botswana Gazette
President Ian Khama, who is a member of the Advisory Board of The Brenthurst Foundation, attended a roundtable event organised by the Foundation in Estonia in February 2024.
The roundtable was organised to discuss the manuscript for a new book, ‘The Art of War and Peace’ on the fragile global security climate by authors Dr Greg Mills and David Killcullen.
The event included a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, who briefed the group on the security threats to Estonia, which shares a border with Russia. That country’s invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by rhetoric to the effect that it seeks to return territories that obtained independence from the old Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
President Khama attended the meeting with Prime Minister Kallas but did not seek a meeting with Estonian President Alar Karis as has been erroneously reported by The Botswana Gazette on 6 March 2024.
According to Office of the President of Estonia, no request for a meeting was received from President Khama. “Since the Office of the President of Estonia has not received any request for the meeting between former President of Botswana, Mr Ian Khama and President of Estonia, Mr Alar Karis and we have not been involved with the event mentioned in the article, we don ́t have any further comments on this matter,” said spokeman Erki Holmberg.
The authors of this story failed to verify their facts and failed to contact President Khama or The Brenthurst Foundation to arrive at the truth of the matter.
Such media practices undermine the credibility of the The Botswana Gazette, raise questions about its motives, and should be roundly condemned by all in the Free South who value open, accountable democracy.
