Indian Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari is currently visiting Botswana to discuss the development of relations between the two countries. India is particularly interested in expanding relations with regards to diamonds.

According to the Sunday Standard, the De Beers diamond mining giant and Botswana formed a diamond partnership in Botswana some forty years ago which was fondly referred to as an agreement “among families.” However, in recent years the picture has definitely changed as Botswana aspires to achieve a more independent role in its own diamond industry. Pressure has increased to secure added value for Batswana.

Sunday Standard quotes Indian journalists accompanying the Vice President on the visit who noted that in what may serve as major competition to De Beers, India hopes to sign an agreement with Botswana to buy uncut diamonds directly from the source for its diamond cutting and finishing industry.

The Indian media quoted Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari as saying, “this is of direct interest to us, as we have a large and prosperous diamond cutting industry in Gujarat. As more and more countries are discovering, direct dealing between diamond seller and buyer is better than the indirect dealing through a monopoly organization in London.”

Sunday Standard quotes a statement made last November at a WFDB meeting by Former Coordinator of the Botswana Diamond Hub project, Dr. Akolang Tombale: “We cannot entrust our national survival on people who, when it makes business sense, can switch their interest any time and do something else that suits them at the time. It is simply too important for us to abdicate our responsibility or leave anything to chance.”

He added: “We don’t want to be left at the end of the day without any diamonds when mining ends, so we are trying to build an industry that goes beyond producing. That’s an objective far bigger than the relationship with De Beers. It’s a matter of our survival.”

At the time, Tombale reiterated Botswana’s need to take the next step and build a diamond hub through the encouragement of third-party trading within the country.

Currently, De Beers and Botswana share joint-venture agreements as equal owners of the official Debswana Mining Company and the marketing company Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB). The Botswana government owns a 15% stake in De Beers.

The creation of a diamond trading platform in the country may place pressure on the relationship, although Tombale stressed that this would not happen.

Nevertheless, according to reports the country is planning to initiate rough diamond tenders of diamonds from Debswana mines, while creating a facility for third parties to host tenders. There is no doubt that these steps may well pose a threat to De Beers’ activities in Botswana.