Ansari in Botswana to tap diamond biz

I / Gaborone (botswana) January 9, 2010, 16:19 IST

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is on a tri-nation tour of southern African countries, today arrived at the capital of Botswana.

The Vice-President, who concluded his three-day visit to Malawi, was received by his Botswana counterpart Mompati S Merafhe.

Ansari will be holding one-to-one talks with Merafhe, after which the delegation-level talks will take place between the two sides, prior to signing of agreements.

Ansari is likely to discuss the possibilities of the cooperation between India and Botswana in the field of uncut diamond procurement in which the African country has large deposits.

He will meet Botswana President Lt Gen Sereste Khama Ian Khama.

The Vice-President is being accompanied by Indian Minister of Labour and Employment Harish Rawat, three MPs -- D Raja (CPI), Anusuia Uikey (BJP) and Jai Prakash Agrawal (Congress) besides media and business delegation.

Earlier, talking about the diamond source in Botswana, Ansari had said, "Diamonds are of direct interest to us. We have a very prosperous diamond-cutting industry in Gujarat.

India wants to develop cooperation in this area with Botswana."