Africa-Press – Botswana. The historic visit by Angola President, Mr. JoÇŽo Lourenço, has laid the foundation for the deepening of ties between that country and Botswana, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi told a State Banquet held in honour of the visiting head of state in Gaborone on July 21 night.
While acknowledging that the two states had maintained diplomatic ties since the mid-1970s, and former Angolan President Mr Jose Eduardo Dos Santos had previously visited the country on a working visit to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat in Gaborone in 2003, President Masisi nonetheless noted that this was the first state visit by an Angolan head of state to Botswana focused solely on ties between the two nations.
“This being Angola’s first bilateral state visit, we are enjoined to make the visit both successful and memorable, and thus, be reflective of the excellent fraternal relations between our two countries,” President Masisi said.
He said the visit had granted the two states an opportunity to lay the framework for cooperation, including intensifying efforts for the signing of outstanding Memoranda of Understanding and of Agreement such as the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, Bilateral Air Services Agreement, Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement, as well as Agreement on Transmission of Energy.
Additionally, Botswana and Angola had in principle decided to work towards collaboration on petroleum products and supply, selling of cattle and livestock vaccines, and trading on a wide range of fast-moving consumer goods and products, Dr Masisi revealed.
“Botswana, attaches great strategic importance to her relations with Angola, not only in the bilateral arena, but also on the regional, continental and global fronts. This is, for example, demonstrated through the economic integration agendas, as well as the preservation and management of shared resources, such as water, flora, fish and wildlife, in the Cubango-Kavango-Okavango River Basin and ecosystem, for improving and sustaining the livelihoods of our river-based populations,” President Masisi said.
In his address, President Lourenço said Angola and Botswana’s diplomatic ties were formally established in 1976, but took improved shape 30 years later with the signing of the foundational General Agreement of Cooperation Agreement in 2006, which established a Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation.
While noting that progress towards tangible cooperation had taken place at a snail’s pace since then, he lauded his Botswana counterpart for making effort to visit Angola three times since assuming office in 2018, which helped speed up effort towards improved ties.
President Lourenço said there was great interest from Angola to cooperate more with Botswana for the two states to reduce reliance on other markets, and strengthen economic ties in areas such as animal vaccine, veterinary laboratory techniques, transportation, mining, tourism among others.
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