Angola and the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) successfully concluded the 2026 African Chiefs of Defense Conference (ACHOD) in Luanda, Angola, on July 2, three days of talks that drew chiefs of defense and delegations from more than 35 countries under the theme “leveraging our strengths, advancing regional security for enduring prosperity”.
The conference opened June 30, 2026, with remarks from Angolan Aviation General Altino dos Santos, Chief of the General Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces, who called the gathering “a privileged forum for dialogue on security, stability and prosperity”. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered a virtual keynote from the Pentagon to open the conference. AFRICOM’s own account of the event states that U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine also provided virtual remarks from Washington.
Organizers built the conference around four panels: Global Commons- Crossing the Seams; The Information Domain – Owning the Story; The Economic Opportunity – Linking Stability and Prosperity; and Innovation Solutions – Beyond Technology in Operations, including drone technology in security operations. “The primary objective of the roundtable was to gather direct feedback from private industry regarding the roadblocks to operating in Africa”, in the words of U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Eero R. Keravuori, AFRICOM’s deputy director for Strategy, Engagement and Programs.
On June 29, 2026, Aviation Gen. Altino Carlos José dos Santos, Chief of the General Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces, and U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Matthew S. Woodruff, adjutant general for the State of Ohio, signed a formal State Partnership Program (SPP) agreement in Luanda, activating the military component of a relationship first announced in August 2025. A governmental letter of intent had already been signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Angolan Defense Minister João Ernesto dos Santos at the Ohio Statehouse on April 9, 2026; the Luanda ceremony completed the process by bringing the two militaries formally into the partnership.
The State Partnership Program (SPP) pairs individual U.S. states’ National Guard units with foreign militaries for long-term cooperation. Angola is Ohio’s third partner nation, joining Hungary, a partner since 1993, and Serbia, a partner since 2006. Nationally, the program now counts 107 partnerships with 116 countries, coordinated jointly by the National Guard Bureau, the U.S. Department of War and the State Department.
The priorities named for the Ohio-Angola track, professional military education, leadership development, disaster response, medical readiness, cyber capabilities and joint planning, mirror the areas AFRICOM has emphasized across the continent as it tries to build partner capacity without large permanent troop deployments. Organizers said that sequencing was deliberate, meant to connect individual state partnerships to the command’s continental strategy rather than let them run in parallel without coordination.
In 2023, President Joe Biden of the United States and his Angolan counterpart, President Joao Lourenco, had high-level talks on infrastructure and regional security. The two leaders discussed a range of issues, from trade and investment to climate and energy, but the main focus was on the defence partnership between the two countries. They agreed to “enhance cooperation on maritime security, counterterrorism, peacekeeping, and defence institution building”.
The next step for the Ohio-Angola partnership is the drafting of an annual engagement plan to schedule specific exchanges in the priority areas identified at the signing.