Botswana and Rwanda have concluded an agreement which will ultimately allow for direct flights between the two countries.The Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) will facilitate cooperation in the area of air ttransport between the two countries. Other areas of cooperation that the two leaders agreed to strengthen include trade and industry, agriculture, education and traiing, health, mining tourism and defece and law enforcement.
As for the latter, Rwanda sends police officers for training in different programmes every year to the Otse-based International Law enforcement Agencey (ILEA), which to date has trained 201 Rwandese police officers. President Mokgweetsi Masisi told his Rwandese counterpart, Paul Kagame Thursday June 2019 in Gaborone during a state banquet at Avani that Botswana regards the east African country as an “important and strategic ally in our development efforts”.
To guide their cooperation, the two leaders agreed set up a “structured bilateral framework” – Joint Permanent Comission on Cooperation (JPCC) - to provide streategic direction on “our relations”through regular meetings and to periodically take stock of bilateral relations of the two countries as well as monitor progress on agreed milestones, Masisi said.
Masisi said the JPCC will also refocus the two countries’ efforts on critical areas where they have “comparative advantage” such as animal disease control; beef production and mineral beneficiation where Botswana has made significant strides.
Rwanda’s strengths on the other hand are its successful service sector; diversified tourism sector; developed ICT and commere. Masisi said they could channel their energies in these sectors to maximise both countroes’ “mutual benefit”.