23 Jan 2025

Botswana’s foreign policy has always been informed by its enshrined democratic values, hence its support for the end of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said this when welcoming Ukraine ambassador to Botswana, Dr Oleksiy Syvak, when the latter paid a courtesy call on him yesterday. 

“We believe as a nation that it is important that human rights become our anchor policy,” he said.

He said the country had a duty to promote the Charter of the United Nations as well as uphold international law. 

“It is our interest that hostilities are not further inflamed, that we avoid further inflaming hostilities,” Mr Keorapetse said.

He said Parliament had an important role to ensure that democracy was sustained and nourished, adding that it was its constitutional obligation to make laws for peaceful and good governance of the country.

He said moving toward full consolidation of democracy, it was important for Botswana as a developing country, to ensure that institutions were strong, which could also be helped by relations of multilateral and bilateral partners. 

He said Botswana was a member of various inter-parliamentary bodies including the inter-parliamentary union, of which Ukraine was also a member.

The Speaker further said Botswana parliament was looking at areas of cooperation with the Ukrainian Parliament especially in areas of research, information and technology and capacity building for members of parliament and staff. 

“As we move toward paperless, our MPs need to be capacitated in terms of gadgets, in terms of the ability to use technology,” he said.

Mr Keorapetse told the Ukraine ambassador that apart from making laws, Parliament had the role of being an oversight institution to ensure that the country did not deviate from its commitment to the rule of law and international obligations.

Ambassador Dr Syvak said the country was strengthening its relations with African nations, adding that its experience in the country would be a case study for other countries. 

He further said their country was working on establishing twinning partnerships with communities, villages and cities in the country.

He said Ukraine was a country with expertise in areas such as education, information technology, medicine and modern technology among others, and was interested in how it could work with Botswana.

Mr Keorapetse also met with the European Union Ambassador to Botswana, Ms Petra Pereyra, where he appreciated EU’s role in strengthening the Botswana’s democracy and being a development partner over the years.

Ms Pereyra said the EU relations and partnership with Botswana spanned over years and further congratulated the country for peaceful general elections and seamless transition of power. ENDS