Khama �recklessly amateur� in Dalai Lama spat, Boko says
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Thursday July 20, 2017 15:57
Speaking at the party conference in Kang over the holidays, Boko accused President Ian Khama of being reckless and amateurish in his handling of the diplomatic spat over the Dalai Lama’s pending visit to Botswana.
China traditionally demands that all its diplomatic partners respect its One-China Policy, while the Dalai Lama is the figurehead of a separatist movement in Tibet, a northern region of China. China has ramped up threats about its continuing relationship with Botswana, should Gaborone continue with plans to host and recognise the exiled spiritual leader.
Khama has said he will meet the Dalai Lama and a dignitary’s welcome will be given the spiritual leader. Boko said the stance is astonishing. “Any recriminations that the Chinese government may be contemplating must be mitigated by that sensitivity and tailored carefully to hurt this corrupt government and its amateurish President rather than the innocent people of Botswana,” he said.
“The BDP government is a discredited and dangerously dishonest government. Their lies and fabrications regarding the issue of the South China Sea dispute and their treatment of the Chinese government on that and the latest issue of the sovereign integrity of China have not only been exposed but the country now totters on the brink of a wholesale severing of ties by the Peoples Republic of China.”
The BNF president continued: “The recklessness with which this President handles matters of international diplomacy is astonishing.” Boko said the BNF, when in power, would uphold the One-China Policy and be sensitive to it. “International relations require dialogue and diplomacy rather than inconsiderate acts of unilateralism,” he said. “The (current) views represent the whims of the President and his henchmen.
“The interests of the country must be paramount in crafting any action or statement that implicates our relations with other nations.”