Africa-Press – Botswana. The official talks in Kasane between Botswana and Zambia will culminate in the two countries signing a Programme of Cooperation in Livingstone, Zambia in two months.
This was assured by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi during the opening of the official talks with his Zambian counterpart, Mr Hakainde Hichilema in Kasane on January 24.
Dr Masisi mentioned that after the official talks, the two nations’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs would focus on formulating an enhanced, impactful programme of bilateral cooperation, covering sectors such as mines, mineral development, agriculture, health, transport, infrastructure, defence, and security among others.
The President said there was need for cooperation on immigration and the movement of goods, referencing the iconic Kazungula Bridge jointly owned by the two nations.
“Luckily we have our predecessors to thank for coming up with the idea of developing a bridge between the two nations,’ he said.
The intention is to settle the operationalisation of the bridge and all its assets, with plans to develop a matrix and checklist for that purpose within a month.
“We asked for this and I know that we will make it happen. We will deliver on it,” he said.
On other issues, Dr Masisi said Zambia was blessed with more water than Botswana and had the capacity to produce more than its neighbour, therefore the country’s livestock sector benefited on Zambian agricultural produce.
“These include among others, maize bran and molasses. We recently reached an agreement with one Zambian private company to start producing and exporting fertilizers to Botswana to use during our cropping season,” he said.
Additionally, the President said Botswana was willing to help Zambia in vaccine development, especially Foot and Mouth, CBPP cattle lung disease vaccines.
“We would be very much happy to help in that area because the sooner we can clean out the herd between the two countries the better in terms of livestock value addition,” he said.
Further, Dr Masisi expressed the country’s willingness to assist Zambia in its interest in learning about Botswana’s diamond sales agreement with De Beers.
“Regarding this, we will also be more than happy to assist, including even offering Zambia our technical expertise at both government and private sector levels,” he said. Dr Masisi said Botswana’s assistance to Zambia would be in the sole belief that all natural diamonds should be value added to derive maximum benefits for the producer countries. In addition, President expressed appreciation for Zambia’s keeness to learn from Botswana’s experience with the COVID-19 and HIV and AIDS pandemics.
For his part, president Hichilema acknowledged Dr Masisi’s invitation.
He reiterated that citizens of the two countries were one people,only separated by the border.
“We have a lot of common issues to smoothen up in order to improve our people to people relations,” he said.
Mr Hichilema said Zambia was willing to deepen relations with Botswana, which he said could even be traced to as far back as creation than independence.
“Even though President Masisi indicated that Botswana stood to benefit more from our friendship, we are also satisfied with what we get from it,” he added.
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