Transcript of Special briefing by MEA on President's State visit to Botswana (November 13, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
November 13, 2025
Shri Rajesh Parihar, Dir (XPD): Good afternoon everyone. I welcome you all to this special media briefing on ongoing visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati Ji to Botswana.
And for this briefing, I have on dias with me, Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (Economic Relations) Ministry of External Affairs, Ms. Manisha Verma, Press Secretary to the Hon'ble Rashtrapati Ji, Shri Janesh Kain, Joint Secretary (East and Southern Africa), Ministry of External Affairs; and Shri Bharath Kumar Kuthati, High Commissioner of India to Botswana. Now, I would like to request Secretary to brief the media on the Hon'ble Rashtrapati's visit to Botswana.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Well, thank you very much Rajesh. Good afternoon everyone, friends from media.
As all of you know, Hon'ble President arrived in Botswana on the evening of 11th November on her first ever state visit by a Head of State from India to Botswana. On arrival, in a special gesture, Hon'ble President was warmly received by the Hon'ble President of Botswana at the airport. Hon'ble President was given a ceremonial welcome and she inspected the Guard of Honour.
Yesterday, Hon'ble President was received at the President's office by Hon'ble President Boko, the two leaders held a tete-a-tete, which was followed by delegation level talks between the two sides. From the Botswana side, several Cabinet Ministers and senior officials were present at the talks. From the Indian delegation side, Minister of State for Railways and Jal Shakti, Shri V. Somanna, and two members of Parliament, Mr. Vasava and Smt D. K. Aruna ji, and senior officials participated at the talks.
During the wide ranging discussions, both the leaders reviewed the existing ongoing bilateral cooperation across sectors between our two countries. They discussed ways to further strengthen and deepen our partnership in sectors of mutual interest such as trade and investments, capacity building and development partnership, skill development, agriculture, health, infrastructure development, renewable energy, defence, and also digital technology in the entire digital space. Both the leaders also exchanged views on regional and global matters of mutual importance.
The Botswana leadership mentioned to Hon'ble President about their economic transformation program as also their Vision 2036, which outlines their efforts to diversify economy and to become a high income country by 2036. In this context, the visit provided an excellent opportunity to appreciate their economic and development priorities and to discuss how both governments can work together, and also how the private sector in both our countries can work together to deepen our cooperation across sectors, particularly in areas which are of priority to Government of Botswana.
The leadership of Botswana also conveyed their keen interest in learning about the deployment of DPI (Digital Public Infrastructure) in India, and how we are leveraging technology for better delivery of citizen centric services, deployment for e-governance, and for also better economic efficiency in the entire government. Hon'ble President conveyed India's readiness to share its own development experience in this domain.
Discussions were followed by the signing of an MOU. You perhaps may have seen that we have signed an MOU in the area of health sector. This MOU will facilitate the access of quality and affordable medicines from India to Botswana. Hon'ble President also conveyed Government of India's readiness and decision to send essential ARV medicines as requested by Government of Botswana.
Later on, Hon'ble President addressed the National Assembly of Botswana in a special session convened yesterday. She was received at the Parliament by the Hon'ble Speaker of the National Assembly and then she addressed the gathering yesterday. Thereafter Hon'ble President visited the Three Dikgosi Memorial which is a symbol of Botswana's unity, leadership and quest for independence. She paid her tributes to the visionary chiefs whose legacy continues to inspire generations in Botswana and in the region.
As you may have noted from the press statements of both the Presidents yesterday after the talks, Botswana has agreed to partner with India in our efforts to reintroduce cheetah in India under Project Cheetah. It is a unique conservation initiative of Government of India which aims to restore cheetah to India's ecosystem and the historical range that we have in India. This morning President Murmu visited the Mokolodi Reserve in Gaborone where President Duma formally handed over eight cheetahs to India, a gesture symbolising the deep friendship and shared commitment to wildlife conservation. Hon'ble President conveyed her deep appreciation to President Boko and the Government of Botswana for this very special gesture.
Today, earlier this morning, Hon'ble Vice President of Botswana and the Minister of International Relations called on Hon'ble President. And a short while ago Hon'ble President interacted with the vibrant Indian community in Botswana at a special reception. She lauded their contribution to Botswana's economic growth and their role in strengthening the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our two countries.
The State Visit of Hon'ble President underscores India's commitment to strengthen its longstanding and friendly ties with Botswana. The visit also reflects India's firm commitment to expanding partnership with the African region, including within the framework of India-Africa Forum Summit.
Being the first ever Presidential visit from India to Botswana, it marks an important milestone in the India-Botswana relationship. It also assumes significance as India and Botswana will be celebrating 60 years of establishment of diplomatic ties between our two countries next year. Hon'ble President Boko described the visit as historic, being the first ever State Visit of a Head of State from India. He mentioned that it is also the first State Visit after his government has assumed responsibility last October.
So for all these reasons, the visit was very important. From our perspective, the State Visit of Hon'ble President has given a fresh momentum to our close ties of friendship and cooperation with Botswana. We have a clear roadmap for expanding our partnership with Botswana and the task before us now is to build on this very positive momentum.
With these words, I would be happy to take questions.
But let me also say one last thing, Rajesh, which is the warmth of welcome by the people and government of Botswana for the Indian delegation, and the hospitality extended to the Indian delegation. It has truly been overwhelming and we are very grateful to the people and government of Botswana, for the manner in which they have received Hon'ble President and the Indian delegation.
Thank you.
Unidentified Speaker: [unclear audio]. My question is what initiative was [unclear audio] in this visit to boost Indian investment and business ties with Botswana, particularly in mining sector, agriculture sector, and digital services.
Unidentified Speaker: [Inaudible]. Sir, of course we witnessed the release of Cheetahs. This is historic. Sir, if you could spell out more details about the transportation of the cheetahs from Botswana to India, timelines and other details, if you could share sir.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much for these thoughtful questions. On the question of the colleague from ANI, this issue of economic cooperation and how we can strengthen our economic partnership was very central in the discussion between the two leaders.
As I mentioned earlier, we do have a robust economic partnership. We have a bilateral trade of roughly about half a billion dollars and we have several Indian companies working in Botswana across sectors. We have an Indian bank who is based in Botswana. We have several Indian companies who have offices in Botswana. So it is a fairly robust partnership.
But we do feel that in the backdrop of the economic transformation roadmap; and the program that the government of Botswana and the Botswana leadership has laid out for itself; and their desire to diversify economy beyond diamond industry, of course, that remains the central sector for Botswana economy; We feel that there are immense opportunities for both India and Botswana to work together.
And in this context, the area that were discussed between the two leaders included, of course, the whole domain of digital ecosystem, the area of agri-technology, how we can sort of deploy Indian experience in terms of agriculture research, technology, agriculture machinery in Botswana, also in the area of health and pharmaceuticals, also infrastructure development, how Indian companies can partner with Botswana again in their larger vision of economic transformation, and also how we can strengthen our development partnership between our two countries.
So I think the message, the sense we get from the discussion and the direction we have from the leadership is that there is a huge scope for boosting a partnership in the area of trade, investment, and economic domain. And we would be working very closely with our partners in Botswana, both in the government and private sector, to ensure that we continue to discuss, engage, and try to harness the full potential of economic partnership between our two countries.
As regards the issue of cheetah, you are very right. I think some of you might know that out of the seven big cat species, cheetah got extinct from India in mid-50s, and the government decided a few years back to sort of bring back this species to India and sort of redeploy and sort of bring them to their historical range in India.
So this is a very, very important project for the government of India, and we are very happy and delighted that the Government of Botswana has come forward to partner with India in this very important wildlife conservation initiative. The translocation of eight cheetahs reflects, of course, our shared commitment for wildlife conservation and biodiversity. It will also strengthen ... overall, I would say, for the larger wildlife conservation community, I would say this partnership is very, very relevant. And we are very hopeful that these cheetahs will move to India not in a very distant future. And, as Hon'ble President mentioned yesterday after the talks with Hon'ble President of Botswana, that they will be looked after well in the range, where they will be sort of looked after and deployed and sent.
So we are very excited about this partnership with Botswana, and we are very grateful to the government of Botswana for joining hands with us on this important initiative. Thank you.
Unidentified Speaker: (unclear audio) The cheetah that got extinct in the 1950s, is it the same as the one that we have here?
(unclear audio) Is it only in the third sector or other areas of the economy? And then, perhaps also, the cooperation and investments. Like you were saying, the Indian companies that are in the garment sector, I believe that they are also hard hit by this economic downturn. So, the question is, how is the Indian government going to be helping or supporting them to recover? Thank you very much.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much. Regarding your question on the cheetah species that is found in Botswana and Africa and India, it is a difficult question to answer, to be honest, for me.
But I do feel that Africa, of course, has had a large population of cheetah historically. In the discussion today with the Botswana leadership, it was mentioned to us that Botswana has about 1700 cheetahs. The High Commissioner, perhaps, can add to this. So, it should be something, I would say, similar. But I would not like to give you a wrong answer on this.
The second question about the MOU that we signed yesterday, it was in the area of pharmacopoeia and health sector. And as I mentioned earlier, this will help us to supply quality medicines and drugs at affordable cost to people of Botswana. So, this MOU is very, very significant for both our countries. There were no other MOUs. This MOU does not cover any other sectors. But we are discussing with the government of Botswana how we can enhance the framework of cooperation across sectors, whether it's agriculture or retail side. So, as our discussion sort of gets deeper, I expect that we would enter into more MOUs and framework of cooperation with the government of Botswana.
Unidentified Speaker: Maybe just a follow-up on that one, because Prime Minister Modi spoke about the BRICS countries, the need for the BRICS countries to set up a repository for indigenous medicines. And I'm just wondering, the MOU that you signed, does it also cover the alternative medicine sector?
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Yes, thank you. This is beyond the visit, but I would like to respond to your question about BRICS.
Yes, we are discussing within the framework of BRICS possibilities of cooperation in the health sector, including traditional medicine. And India, as you know, is going to chair the BRICS for the next year, starting from 1st January next year. And we would like to see that we could cooperate more extensively, more actively, in the framework of traditional system of medicine as well going forward.
I missed to respond to your question about diamond. And I would like to say that while we do have excellent collaboration between India and Botswana in the area of diamond, both in terms of cutting and polishing, and we have presence of Indian companies in this sector who are based in Botswana.
And the Botswana leadership is very happy the way they are working in Botswana in terms of not only exporting raw diamond to India and doing cutting and polishing in India, but also creating capacities in Botswana. And the impression I get from the Botswana leadership and senior officials is that, that is the model they would like to follow, going forward in the context of our cooperation in the diamond sector.
You are right, the diamond sector is facing some headwinds right now. So we will see how it goes in the coming times. But we are also looking at, as I said earlier, different areas of cooperation beyond diamond sector, because that is the sort of roadmap that government of Botswana has laid out for itself through Vision 2036 document and also economic transformation roadmap that you have.
So we would engage with government of Botswana as to what concrete proposals they have in this context, and how the Indian development experience can be shared with the people of Botswana and also how business communities from both Botswana and India can work together in these areas. Thank you.
Neelabh, PTI: Hi, I am Neelabh. I work with the Press Trust of India. Sir, my first question is already almost answered ... (unclear audio) ... my friends from India and Botswana, both have asked about diamond sector.
So the second question, sir, also, this brings to end the President's six-day state visit to both Angola and Botswana. So if you can sum up the entire visit of the President, as to what were the meaningful gains and what exactly, as you said in the Presser in Delhi, that this is also the larger African connect that we are looking at. So, if you can just sum up the entire six days tour of the President. Thank you.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Well, thank you very much for sort of bringing out the dimensional full tour of Hon'ble President to Africa.
I would say that, first of all, the visit of Hon'ble President to Africa, to Angola and Botswana, reflects the priority that Government of India attaches to the engagement with the African continent as a whole. As I mentioned to you, we have this platform of India-Africa Forum Summit in which we engage with the African Union, and also all the leaders in Africa.
And, Hon'ble Prime Minister had laid out ten fundamental principles of our partnership with the African region when he addressed the Parliament of Uganda in 2018. And, if I were to sort of not summarize but to see the structure of cooperation between Angola and India and Botswana and India ... some common themes, I find that what we need to do is to look at how we can strengthen our partnership in the domain of economic cooperation. That is the first vertical, I would say, trade and economic.
The second vertical that I would say is the whole rubric of development partnership. How can we share our own experience with the countries in Global South. Angola and Botswana are very central in that partnership. Also, the whole area of capacity building, I did not sort of touch upon that aspect. But, when we engage with the Botswana leadership in every meeting of Hon'ble President with President Boko and Vice President, everybody mentioned to us about the importance they attach to the capacity building initiative of Government of India and the ITEC program and the ICCR scholarships and various other initiatives.
Hon'ble President of Botswana and also Hon'ble Vice President of Botswana and many other leaders and senior officials spoke about the contribution of Indian teachers in the area of STEM who came in 60s and 70s and 80s perhaps and contributed to the education sector development in Botswana.
So, these are very heartwarming, I would say, sort of aspects of India-Botswana relationship, and we would like to build on these capacity building programs. In the last 10 years, more than 1,500 friends from Botswana, from government, from private sector, from students, they have participated in skill development program, capacity building program and also educational courses in India. That's a large number and we would be going forward very happy to respond to any specific requirements of Government of Botswana. If they want to have, let's say, a capacity building program for a group of IT professionals or somebody who wants to learn about how we are deploying Aadhaar or DigiLocker or the entire DPI in India, we would be very happy to curate a special program for Botswana, given the friendship and the capacity building partnership we have enjoyed with Botswana over the years. So that is the second pillar I would say that I see both in Angola and Botswana that is very relevant.
And the third dimension which has come out very, very significantly is also the whole area of technology, and deployment of technology. And there is a desire and interest to learn from our experience of deploying technology for public administration, for e-governance, for better citizen-centric delivery system for services. So, we are ready to share that experience with our friends in Global South.
And finally, I would say the whole dimension of people-to-people relation that includes connectivity, air connectivity, how do we make it easier for people to travel from Botswana to India and India to Botswana. This issue came up yesterday in discussion and I think Hon'ble President of Botswana in his remarks to media did mention that we must make it easier for people to travel to our countries.
So that also includes of course the contribution of Indian Diaspora. We are delighted that the Indian Diaspora in Botswana is very vibrant and contributing very, very concretely in the economic development of Botswana and of course building bridges of friendship between India and Botswana.
So these are four or five verticals I see. I mean I can't list everything in a short time that we have. But we are very excited to build on this momentum that has been given to our partnership with Angola and Botswana as a result of the first ever state visit of Hon'ble Rashtrapati ji to both Angola and Botswana.
Thank you.
Unidentified Speaker: (unclear audio) There was a mention of ARVs coming from India to Botswana. ARVs, as you can imagine, are very important now in having drug prices in the country, and in shortages of drugs. I just want to know when these drugs are going to be coming and if you (unclear audio).
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Thank you very much. You are very right that we received this request a few weeks back from Government of Botswana for supply of ARV medicines to meet the temporary shortage of this medicine.
So, we are working to supply this medicine as quickly as possible. I would not like to give you a time frame but certainly by next month, Janesh, we should be in a position to supply this medicine to Government of Botswana. Thank you.
Unidentified Speaker: May I just say, Mr. Secretary, that the visit, when was it planned? And the last issue, please do keep the High Commissioner of India for the next 10 years.
Shri Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (ER): Okay, thank you. Thank you very much for coming for the press briefing.
Shri Rajesh Parihar, Director (XPD): Thank you. Because of the paucity of time, we will not be able to take more questions. Thank you.
Sir, with your permission, I would like to conclude this Presser today. Thank you very much for attending.
Gaborone
November 13, 2025
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