05 Dec 2022

Diplomacy remains an essential tool for identifying durable solutions to challenges of economic stagnation, armed conflicts and climate change.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Lemogwang Kwape, said this at a diplomatic dinner hosted in honour of members of the diplomatic corps in Gaborone on Friday.

He said diplomacy played a valuable role in nurturing nations that advanced the principles of democracy, respect for the rule of law and people centred sustainable development.

He said through the nurturing of friendly relations and mutual beneficial cooperation, Botswana continued to benefit from development assistance, foreign direct investment and many other endeavours from friendly countries and international organisations.

Minister Kwape said Botswana’s developmental success story was partially attributed to its international relations and global solidarity.

He said Botswana’s economic diplomacy agenda, similarly remained integral to the country’s post COVID-19 economic recovery efforts as the country strived to transform the economy to the aspirational high-income status by 2036.

Dr Kwape said the country had through engagements with the international community on bilateral, regional and multilateral platforms reached certain milestones such as successfully bidding to host the Kimberly Process secretariat and hosting the international summit on Constitutionalism and Democratic Consolidation in Africa.

“Botswana has through the support of international community also managed to attain the chairmanship of the Bureau of the landlocked developing countries for 2022-2023, as well as experienced a successful tenure as the Presidency of the 2022 session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),” he said.

In terms of maintaining peace and stability in the region, Minister Kwape said Botswana would continue to effectively contribute towards strengthening SADC’s peace and security architecture through participating in the SADC Mission in Mozambique.

“Accordingly, Botswana is committed to promoting multilateralism and its rules-based approach to advance sustainable global peace, development and security,” he said. Ends