Addressing diplomats on Wednesday, Masisi said his administration had been able to secure the co-signatures of Namibia and Angola on the letter.
The Group of Seven or G7, which comprises the United States, the United Kingdom and other industrialised states which represent the market for diamonds, has adopted tough new rules to stop Russian diamonds from entering the global diamond industry. Russia is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume and while the US long imposed sanctions due to the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s diamonds continue to freely trade in the market and into the US.
Amongst its various elements, the G7’s plans involve all polished diamonds being sent to a single node in Antwerp, Belgium for certification that the stones are not of Russian origin. The decision not only adds costs and delays to producers in Africa, but also re-centres the global rough diamond industry in Antwerp, away from emerging centres such as Gaborone. It also undermines the efforts of producers such as Botswana to establish cutting edge traceability initiatives and undercuts government’s plans to extract more value for the country’s diamonds through downstream activities.
“We have not gotten a response,” Masisi said. “Apparently, they say they are consulting, but the requirements have kicked in and luckily the World Diamond Council has also protested because there has been serious disruption to the flow of the diamond trade and cost implications and delays. “When you get an organisation based in Antwerp complaining, it helps us.”
The President said support had also been sought during heads of state engagements with countries such as Kenya, Zambia, The Bahamas and Uganda.
Masisi said Botswana and other African diamond producers found the idea of a single node in Antwerp unacceptable. He said engagements had been made with the G7 but these had yet to be fruitful.
“They want to arrest this value and keep it in Antwerp. But they don’t have diamonds. “So yes, we will tussle and wrestle and win some and forego some, but we cannot allow, or agree to an attempt to undermine our quest for development by taking charge and responsibility of our own value addition of our resources. “When you make Antwerp the single node for verification, gosh what impudence when we mine our diamonds here and we are certain they are mined here.”
Masisi revealed that he had met Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo last year at the United Nations to kick off engagements on the G7’s plans.
“I gently told him that this is not acceptable, that you cannot do this without engaging us, and particularly Botswana. “In fairness to him, they did reach out and sent people here but the engagement was pretty patronising. “They had essentially made up their minds that they will take their decisions and what they sent us was staff, officials, so I declined to meet them. “They met their counterparts and the message was clear; this is not going to work for us and we would like them to reconsider.”
In January, a G7 technical team spent some days in the country, visiting diamond mines and assessing the state of the art verification and traceability systems in place throughout the local value chain. However, the officials left without giving any commitments, only saying consultations would continue.
Masisi said the fight to overturn the G7’s plans would continue.
“When the G7 made these propositions that are inimical to our interests, and particularly Botswana because we are one of the largest producers, they were essentially attempting to regulate our industry completely without our participation,” he told the diplomats.
