Botswana's president is on his first state visit to China. CGTN's Su Yuting sat down with Mokgweetsi Masisi to discuss business relations and his expectations on the upcoming FOCAC Beijing Summit.

SU YUTING BEIJING "President Masisi, nice to have you on CGTN. I know you have a very busy schedule in China. You have already met with President Xi Jinping, you have attended the China-Botswana Business Forum, and you will also attend the FOCAC Beijing Summit very soon. What do you expect from the forum and how do you assess the development of business relations between China and Africa under the framework of the FOCAC?"

MOKGWEETSI MASISI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA "The mutual admiration for each other's thinking and programs between myself and president Xi Jinping was evident from early on, and so I expect as he promised and I too promised him that the relationship between Botswana and China will deepen will strengthen will broaden. And the vehicle by which that will be accelerated is a FOCAC vehicle. Well, I expect a lot of excitement from my colleagues coming from Africa, because we look at the road and belt initiative, we look at President Xi Jinping's vision of the future. You know sharing a common future. When you look at his policy of interacting with Africa, in an unintrusive manner without conditionality. It's very attractive to adopt that model to adopt such partners for our own development. I expect that the business forum will start by hitting the ground running."

SU YUTING BEIJING "President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. Many cooperation projects have been implemented between China and Africa over the past five years. What potential cooperation opportunities has Botswana seen in this initiative, especially in trade and economic areas?"

MOKGWEETSI MASISI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA "Well beginning with trade, it's gonna be facilitated. And like the Chinese saying goes, if you want to get rich, build the road. That's quite handsome with the road and belt initiatives, and so we in Botswana in our expectation of articulating our FOCAC deals have proposed a number of projects. In for such projects, roads essentially and real road and these are strategic. They connect us to all our neighbors. And they are gonna facilitate trade and we also ask the Chinese companies come over and develop their design and build together."

SU YUTING BEIJING "Some western media say China's lending in Africa has increased the debt burden of African countries, accusing China of practicing so-called neocolonialism, what's your take on that?"

MOKGWEETSI MASISI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA "My take is that it is laughable - how can those who have actually colonized? China to my knowledge has never colonized any countries in Africa. How can those who have recently colonized, and recently come up with initiatives such as high in destinations, a program, structure adjustment, you name it how can they have those to suggest that China is doing that? In an event we are smart enough to understand who is who, what is what. So we choose our friends with deliberateness and focus."

SU YUTING BEIJING "President Xi Jinping said China-Africa ties have set a good example for South-South Cooperation. How do you assess China's role in promoting South-South Cooperation?"

MOKGWEETSI MASISI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA "My assessment is that China is going to continue to be a significant player in the south to south cooperation. Being a second in this economy, the factor of the world. There is no way that China cannot play in a part in this cooperation. And look at the figures, and we are trade between China and ourselves in China's favor, sixty billion a million us dollars. And we export to China sixty million. And we want to close that gap but also broaden apart."