14 Sep 2023

Botswana and The Bahamas have put to pen a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral and political consultations. 

The MoU is on the establishment of bilateral and political consultations based on the areas of Environment and Tourism, trade and investment, agriculture, education, health and financial sector.

Speaking during the signing ceremony on the side lines of President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi's state visit to The Bahamas on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Lemogang Kwape said the delegation was visiting Nassau to cement on the bonds that had already been started.

“We share a common heritage as the two nations. We are here to continue on our shared values as we are both known to be true believers in democracy rule based system in all the organisations we belong to. Our coming here is to cement the foundation that was started by our founding leaders,”he said.

Dr Kwape said signing of the MoU meant the two nations' work had been cut out and it was time to hit the ground running.

“We have many areas that we have set out, most importantly tourism, which you are doing very well in. We want to take a leaf from what you do here. We have common experiences, had been both grey listed and both emerged from the grey-list. We should continue to work together and improve our financial sectors especially now that we are digitizing,” he said.

Minister Kwape urged both nations to take advantage of value addition of natural resources and providence that came with it, which must be harnessed for the best results. 

“We should also interest you in what we do and do best, diamonds. We want to open up markets in the Caribbean so you enjoy resources our forefathers’ bequest to us. What we are doing today should signify the future,” he said.

For his part The Bahamas Foreign affairs Minister Mr Fred Mitchell said the signing signified setting the framework for the two nations going forward.

“We have similar agreements with South Africa and it is the intention of our government to have total outreach to Africa who we consider our kith and kin. We are pleased that the African Union decided to make the diaspora in particular the Caribbean Community (CARECOM) countries its sixth region,” said Mr Mitchell. Mr Mitchell said the relationship between the two was strengthened during a joint session at the CHOGM meeting in Kigali that followed good exchanges. 

“We are happy to see this on the ground. We are looking forward to watching this relationship expand all the synergies we have in the financial services, tourism, that we learn and develop these and of course our commitment to the environment especially the question of fighting the issue of climate change,” he said. Ends