Botswana’s President Masisi slams ‘wrong’ G7 decision on diamond certification • FRANCE 24 English

Botswana’s President Masisi slams ‘wrong’ G7 decision on diamond certification • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] hello and welcome to tetatet France 24’s Flagship interview show our guest today is M masisi the president of Botswana thank you very much Mr President thank you you’re here in Paris uh to attend the summit meant to ramp up vaccine manufacturing production on African uh soil obviously here in the west many people think about covid when they think about vaccines but obviously in Africa malaria is a much biger ger plague uh do you see this production ramp up as key to taking care of Africans especially African children thank you very much for the interview and I am here indeed in Paris to engage with a view to getting help in Our intention to be able to independently produce vaccines of a variety of types uh clearly the last pandemic we suffered was covid and uh we had the means to procure we did we didn’t get the vaccines and that was really sore that’s why we are so Resolute in making sure that we can produce our own but you’re right we have a number of neglected tropical diseases and so those would also focus on and produce those but we also committed to the one Health principle uh we currently are able to produce thanks to French technology and help uh foot and- mouth vaccine for cattle uh and so we want to optimize and borrow from the skills sets that we developed in the production of vaccine for cattle and uh bring it to vaccines for human right for this you need money we need money how much money and how much money are we hoping to get from rich countries that might have their economic issues or other priorities like the war in Ukraine and etc etc we need the money that it takes to produce vaccines that are safe we don’t want money to be given to us only or borrowed to us only we have some of our own money it’s just not enough we are fiercely independent we’re determined also to borrow if need be but we’ll borrow responsibly we never borrow recklessly how much money do you need for that well I can’t put you know a figure on it immediately but yes it it billions I mean the pharmaceutical industry if you’re developing it from near scratch like we are it’s going to cost a lot of money but it’s it’s necessary money to spend right alongside the presidents of Angola and Namibia you wrote a letter uh to the G7 leaders to complain that this group The G7 had decide as part of its sanctions against Russia that all diamonds uh sold in G7 countries need to go through ANP in Belgium and not other uh places why did you write this letter we were offended by the decision we were offended by the decision because it’s a wrong decision it’s a wrong decision because it didn’t take our views into account they didn’t ask you it’s a wrong decision because it was compromising our sovereignity as independent nation states it’s a wrong decision because it was taking away our capacity to be in control even of our data to do with diamonds it’s a wrong decision because we are the producer countries why would we not be trusted why would we not be given the opportunity if there was any doubt to be an no and place it in a country that does not produce diamonds but as one of the top Diamond producers in the world I mean they must have asked you before no no they didn’t that’s why we offended we did say that to them then they came to talk to us but they talked to us when the plan was pretty rolled forward with many many errors in it and so we have kept on engaging and as we engaged deeper and further the team that are sent to us when they got stuck um uh reversed to well diverted to saying that they were only Messengers so we wrote the letter to try and talk to the did you get an answer to that letter we are waiting for an answer and if you don’t don’t get an answer we will get an answer so you’re hoping that they’re going to change that decision allow other centers to process precisely if not what would you do I don’t think there’s any other way right but if they say no that’s our because we want tight sanctions against Russia I don’t would you do an embargo would you I mean are you ready no I don’t want to go that route I’m convinced in the conversations we’ve had that there’s positivity at the end of the tower uh speaking of diamonds uh you are supposed to finalize a new diamond sales agreement with the Bears at the end of June uh first of all will this happen in time and what will this change from previous sales agreement uh some uh commentators have said that they were unbalanced we are about 98 close to 99% done with the deal so very few things Remain the last mile is often the most difficult one The Last Mile um and so you know the broader issues we’ve agreed on um whether it’ll be signed in June or July I’m I’m not a technical expert in that area but I just know that it’ll be signed uh there is a huge difference between the previous deal and the new one massive difference like night night and day you know in the previous agreement for instance that the master agreement we had with the be um they the original one uh resulted in the them taking away to sell 100% of all diamonds then 2011 when we renegotiate the deal 10% was taken by the bana government of the production of dsana which is a joint company between DBS and B government so that we could discover price uh but without getting into details we really didn’t discover price so much there were a number of limiting factors and so when we renegotiate this time not only did we agree on a principle of negotiation which resulted in about 6 months an increase from 10% to 25% which is what we get now but we committed and we’ve agreed once we sign the deal at signature we will now take an allocation of 30% and that will ramp up every year until on the 10th Year we’re taking 50% of production are you saying that’s one the bigger change is also that we have removed the non-compete Clause that was the most offending clause in the old agreement so you can sell to others we can sell to others we can beneficiate we can participate in the whole pipeline was it a colonial era type of agreement before you bet it was more than Colonial what was it obnoxious neoc Colonial Imperial and close to racist your country is often hailed as an example of wildlife uh conservation uh several Western countries are pushing for a ban on the import of hunting trophies as uh they’re known uh this is not something that makes you happy uh you even said in just maybe uh recently to Germany that well you ready to send them 20,000 elephants you have the largest elephant population in the world 130,000 I believe uh why are you upset by this effort by the West to avoid too much hunting especially those kinds of animals yet again we would like more respect similar to the G7 decision in this case the reasons Advanced are negated by evidence and science for the ban the reasons being to preserve nature and so on right precise nicely because you don’t do that by Banning just like with any Factory cu the nature of reproduction of elephants is similar to a production line that you have of VW or P you’ve got off take if you don’t there’s glut if there glut with living species big malan species like elephants what happens to the very ecosystem you’re trying to protect but more than anything else if you’re really a Humane person what what happens to the human beings who live there particularly in a country like mine where we’ have preserved more than 40% of land for conservation there’s nobody who has that record so what do you think happens to those elephants what do you think happens to the people who live there what happens do you think do you think happens to their livelihoods when they try and irk out a living growing crops now that is fallacious logic worse still is the nonrecognition of the policies in place the very Progressive conservation policies we have wherein the resources acquired out of the marketing from hunting is used for conservation on the main is used for development to protect the very species to improve the livelihoods of the rural communities who live around these magnificent species so what you’re replying to the West is that in order to preserve crops to preserve even Lives in Your Country you have to be able to hunt elephants you’ve got to be able to hunt elephants among other things right it’s not a Panacea right it’s not a silver bullet but it certainly does help because elephants are very intelligent you know you shoot in particular area they avoid that area right but do you think that Europeans prefer uh elephants to people in Botswana yes of certainly they’re behaving like they do those European who want to use the reasoning that they do to prevent fair trade of products in the wildlife economy so what are you going to do if there are such banss we’re going to talk to the Europeans we’ always but if they don’t listen the human beings their governments we have diplomatic relations we will talk until they listen because there are many ways of talking I want to ask you more generally about democracy uh in Africa in West Africa especially I know it’s far from uh your country but nevertheless we’ve seen coups in other countries we’re seeing debates about presidential terms people saying oh you know I’m going to change the Constitution be able to have a new mandate and and so on are you concerned about the fate of democracy on the continent I’m not only concerned about the fate of democracy on the continent I’m concerned about the fate of democracy globally okay uh and in some of the leading democracies I’m even more concerned because they have been the example that we’ve been following for instance well I don’t know if I should be naming countries but if you see what’s happening in some leading industrialized countries about issues of democratic slideback it’s very worrying and do you think that Asing as a result African leaders are taking a page from them well if you do look at somebody or some institution country person what you have as an inspiration as some example they tend to be big influences you’re confident you’re going to win those elections I am I am based on the reaction I’m getting from people but you know democracy in elections are never certain so my confidence is not the fact that I will win the fact is I’m confident that’s where the fact ends on those words I want to thank you very much president maissi for appearing here on France 24 and thank you all for watching this show [Music]

FRANCE 24 spoke to Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi on the sidelines of a global summit in Paris, during which $1 billion were pledged to increase the production of vaccines in Africa. Masisi discussed the importance of Africa producing its own vaccines and the need for considerable funding. He also reacted to the G7’s decision that all diamonds sold in G7 countries now need to be certified in Antwerp, Belgium, as part of sanctions on Russia. Masisi called this “a wrong decision” that’s “taking away our capacity to be in control”. He added: “We are the producer countries. Why would we not be trusted?” Botswana is the world’s top diamond producer by value.

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