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By Ashok DixitGaborone (Botwana), Jan.11 (ANI): Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansaricalled on the President of Botswana, Lt. Gen. Khama Ian Khama, at thePresidential Palace here on Monday.Officials accompanying the Vice-President on his visit to Botswana;described his 45-minute call on the President of Botswana as”constructive, positive and friendly”.They said both leaders discussed issues of bilateral, regional andinternational interest and importance to both countries, with a particularfocus on the need to find improved ways to fight terrorism.Briefing media persons after the meeting, Secretary (West) in the Ministryof External Affairs Vivek Katju said: “There was a discussion onterrorism. The President of Botswana expressed sympathies for the victimsof the Mumbai terrorist attack. Our Vice-President said it was a mindless,criminal activity that needed to be combated at all levels nationally,regionally and internationally.”Katju revealed that the Botswana President’s meeting with Vice-PresidentAnsari was an unscheduled special gesture, as he was on leave, and tooktime out to meet the latter. This, he said, was appreciated byVice-President Ansari.He said that among the issues taken up was India’s cooperation inBotswana’s developmental efforts. The Botswanan President thanked thevice-president for India’s assistance in different areas, includingcapacity building. He described New Delhi’s efforts as “exceptional” andadded that all that was being done was “being done in good faith”.On his part, Vice-President Ansari said that India had accumulated a hugewealth of experience in matters relating to development initiatives, andadded that this experience or participation should not be seen asprescriptive, but was something that was needed.Katju said that there was also mention of the good work being done by theIndian Army and the Indian Air Force, and the Botswanan Presidentpointedly acknowledged the professionalism of these teams.He said the vice president described India and Botswana were wellestablished democracies and in the context of democratic governance, therewas a discussion on gender equality and an acceptance that more needed tobe done ensure greater participation of women in national and public life.Internationally, he said there was a brief discussion on the situation inSouth Africa and Zimbabwe, and the two leaders agreed there was need forcredible elections to take place in Zimbabwe.It was felt that there was a need for setting up an institutionalmechanism to tie up all loose threads. The formation of this mechanismwould be done through diplomatic channels, he added.Concluding the press conference, Katju said that this visit of thevice-president to Zambia, Malawi and Botswana went beyond the politicalcontext, the commercial and economic context, and that it was more of anemotional partnership that had seen ideas being thrown up.”We need now in the coming months to concretize these opportunities andgive flesh to these ideas,” Katju said.After the meeting, Ansari and some Indian delegation members paid a visitto the Diamond Trading Centre- Botswana (DTCB) here, where they werebriefed about the various processes of rough diamond production andcutting.It may be recalled that ahead of his visit to Botswana, Ansari had saidthat India is keen on having direct buyer-seller contact, rather thanworking through monopolistic intermediaries like De Beers to purchaseuncut diamonds. He had then revealed that the state of Gujarat had avibrant diamond manufacturing and cutting industry, and believed domesticindustry in particular and the country in general, would benefit fromdirect dealing.Botswana is the world’s second largest producer of diamonds after SouthAfrica. The country’s Jwaneng Diamond Mine (Jwaneng means “a place of small stones”) is the richest diamond mine inthe world when measured by value of recovered diamonds. It is located insouth-central Botswana about 100 miles west of Gaborone in the NalediRiver Valley of the Kalahari Desert.The mine began operations in 1982, and is co-owned by De Beers and theBotswana government under the name ‘Debswana Diamond Company.’The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) is the rough diamond sales anddistribution arm of the De Beers Family of Companies and is the world’slargest supplier of rough diamonds, handling approximately 40 percent ofthe world’s supply by value.With activities in sales, sorting, valuing and diamond beneficiation, theDTC has representative offices in the UK and South Africa, as well asjoint venture operations in Botswana and Namibia with the governments ofthose countries.While most DTC rough diamonds are sold through the London sales office.DTC South Africa, which is wholly owned by De Beers, sells diamonds tosight holders (clients) based in South Africa.Similarly, the joint ventures DTC Botswana and the Namibia Diamond TradingCompany (NDTC) - 50:50 partnerships with the governments of Botswana andNamibia - sell diamonds to clients for cutting and polishing in thesecountries.Formed in 1934, the DTC was established as a standalone company within theDe Beers family in July 2004. The company is focused on maintaining itsposition as the world’s most effective distribution channel for roughdiamonds.The DTC’s main sorting activities are broken down into production sortingand aggregation.No two diamonds are the same and production sorting is the classificationof the various sizes, shapes, colours and clarities of rough diamonds intoone of around 12,000 different categories used by the DTC.Once the production sorting is complete the process of aggregation can begin.Aggregation involves the blending of categories of rough diamondslike-for-like, regardless of their country of origin, then splitting theseinto the appropriate types and quantities to be sold to clients.The production sorting for Botswanan diamonds takes place at the DTCB(Botswana).The valuing of the DTC’s rough diamonds is associated withsorting.The DTC’s sorting categories correspond to price items in the DTC pricebook. This means that once a diamond has been sorted into one of 12,000categories, it can be assigned the relevant value from the price book.(ANI)