Africa-Press – Botswana. Swiss President Alain Berset’s state visit is a clear indication of Botswana and Switzerland’s commitment to advance areas of interest and collaboration.
This was said by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi following a tete-a-tete with his Swiss counterpart at Office of the President yesterday.
Specifically, Dr Masisi spoke of advancing interests in areas that were subsets of and prerequisites to developing a knowledge-based economy and intellectual capital.
Stating that the two countries had reaffirmed their intention to bolster and deepen bilateral ties, President Masisi said the meeting afforded them the opportunity to broaden the scope of relations.
The targetted areas include health, culture, agriculture, trade and investment, education, mineral development and manufacturing, he said.
President Masisi said they also engaged on regional and international issues they intended to take further.
“I am glad that the opportunity has been provided for us to exchange views on a number of multilateral and international issues and to further cement the relations we have,” he said.
He said Botswana and Switzerland did not only have many similarities on foreign policy and international outlook, but also with respect to areas in the multilateral space.
“We have similarities in terms of our commitment to good governance, rule of law, human rights, peace and prosperity as well as commitment to promoting intellectual capital and technical skills,” he said.
For his part, President Berset described his visit as a good starting point for working together to build strong relations to collaborate on the international front.
He said their interaction was a platform for exploring areas of common interests in economic cooperation and development.
President Berset congratulated President Masisi for attaining victory in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I must say I developed more interest on what Botswana was doing during the fight against the pandemic and Botswana was my reference point in the Africa continent,” he said
He expressed delight at the two countries’ intention to explore more collaborations on health issues.
Following the two leaders’ meeting, a declaration of intent on cooperation was signed between Ministry of Health and the Swiss Confederation’s Federal Office of Public Health.
The declaration’s objectives of include cooperating on patient safety, pandemic preparedness and response to public health emergencies.
Cooperation will extend to access to medical products, health promotion, multilateral cooperation on global health issues and strengthening health systems.
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