President Mokgweetsi Masisi was sworn-in for a five-year term on Friday and immediately pledged to reach out to the international community by ensuring that Botswana plays an important role in global affairs.
Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party won 38 parliamentary seats out of the 57 parliamentary seats during elections held on October 23.
In his inauguration speech, Masisi paid tribute to the international community and Botswana’s development partners for the support they continue to give the southern African nation to carry out its development agenda.
“We will continue to work closely with the international community at large to promote peace, democracy and economic integration, amongst others, to help advance the global development agenda with special emphases on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Union’s Agenda 2063 and multilateralism,” Masisi said.
He said in his engagement with the international community, his government would continue to pursue a balanced and pragmatic foreign policy, “which is a hybrid of our values and our development aspirations.”
“This is natural in that we are a developing country founded on democratic ideals,” he said.
Masisi’s predecessor, former president Ian Khama, did not attend most meetings organised by international bodies such as African Union and United Nations during his tenure of office that ran from 2008 to 2018.
Khama was also a critic of other African heads of states, something that nearly isolated Botswana from the continent.
The former head of state boycotted Masisi’s inauguration ceremony.
KO/jn/APA