President Boko of the the Republic of Botswana is scheduled to pay a state visit to China from October 12 to 17, 2026. This is his first visit to China since taking office as president.

Botswana's Minister of International Relations Natalie Butale recently said in an interview with reporters from the National Radio in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, that Botswana attaches great importance to relations with China and looks forward to further deepening cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

Butale said that Botswana has maintained a stable political and economic environment for a long time and is a country with a good business environment in the African continent. President Boko Haram hopes to use this visit to elaborate on the development vision of the new government and promote the strategic partnership between the two countries to a new level.

Boutare, Minister of International Relations of Botswana: We take this visit as an opportunity. Botswana and China have always maintained good bilateral relations. China has achieved remarkable development achievements, and we hope to learn from them to assist our own development. At the same time, we will also take this opportunity to refine the priority areas of cooperation between both parties. China has played a key role in the development process of Botswana, and the two countries have maintained good cooperation in engineering construction, people to people and cultural exchanges, technology transfer and many other fields. It is crucial to cooperate with China in areas such as tourism and digitalization. China is striving to break away from a single industry economy highly dependent on diamonds, and this visit is of great significance to us. We hope to develop a diverse, resilient, and flexible economy.

Butale made positive comments on China's full implementation of zero tariff measures for 53 African countries with diplomatic ties, and believed that such practices made Africa China trade more smooth and provided opportunities for economic development of Botswana and other African countries.

Minister of International Relations of Botswana Butale: China has provided Africa with a number of cooperation mechanisms and agreements, including zero tariff treatment for many African countries. We welcome this. We look forward to working together with countries in the African region to produce, invest, and export our products to the vast Chinese market.Editor/Gong Ziwei