On July 17, the U.S. military, in partnership with the South Africa National Defense Force, launched Exercise Shared Accord 2017, a command post and company-level field training exercise that will take place July 17 – August 3.

Shared Accord 17 is a U.S. Africa Command directed and U.S. Army Africa led exercise designed to assess the capacity and capability of participating staff and forces in peacekeeping operations.More than 1000 military personnel from the U.S. and South Africa are participating in the annual, combined, joint military exercise.It is taking place at the South Africa National Defense Force Combat Training Center in Lohatla.

Brigadier General Prendergast and Brigadier General Lategan will provide a telephonic briefing to members of the media on Monday, July 24 at 10:00 a.m. Interested media are asked to RSVP to U.S. Embassy spokesperson Cindy Harvey at 012-431-4217, 079-111-8280 or Harveycr@state.gov.Dial in information for the briefing will be provided upon receipt of RSVP.This briefing is focused on details regarding Exercise Shared Accord and questions raised outside of this topic may not be answered.United States Army Africa will provide photos from the exercise upon request.

Distributed by APO on behalf of U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa.