China offers to help African countries draft mining plans, Xi tells Botswana's Boko

President Xi Jinping told Botswana's President Duma Gideon Boko in Beijing on 13 October 2026 that China is willing to share its experience and help African countries draw up mining development plans that fit their national conditions. At the same talks the two leaders announced that relations would be raised to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Xinhua reported.

Boko is on a six-day state visit to China that began on 12 October, his first state visit to the country since taking office in November 2024, China Daily reported. Beijing is his second stop, after Fujian province. After the talks at the Great Hall of the People, the two presidents watched the signing of cooperation documents on implementing the Global Security Initiative, the Belt and Road, green minerals, health and human resources, according to Xinhua.

China's Foreign Ministry, in its account of the talks, said Xi made four proposals on mining cooperation with Botswana and with Africa. The first is that cooperation starts from the premise that Africa's resources belong to Africa. The second is that China will keep encouraging Chinese companies to improve their operations and transfer green technology that suits African conditions.

The third is that China-Africa mining cooperation moves towards adding value in industry, and that China will explore affordable and sustainable financing models. The fourth is that Africa's resources should not become a tool of geopolitical struggle, and that China welcomes all parties that sincerely help Africa's development.

On trade, Xi said the two sides should improve their economic and trade framework and use the opportunities from China's zero-tariff policy for African countries that have diplomatic ties with Beijing. China Daily, citing China's Foreign Ministry, put China-Botswana trade in 2025 at US$1.22 billion, up 21.3 per cent from the year before. China and Botswana established diplomatic relations in January 1975 and became strategic partners in September 2024, the paper said.

Boko said Botswana adheres to the one-China principle and welcomes more Chinese companies to invest, Xinhua reported. The two countries issued a joint statement, published by the Foreign Ministry on 13 October. In it, Botswana welcomes the zero-tariff measure for 53 African countries with ties to China. The two sides say they will expand bilateral trade, including through a "green channel 2.0" for African farm products entering China, and create more market opportunities for Botswana beef, citrus and other farm products, with sanitary and plant health questions to be settled jointly.

The statement says the two sides will cooperate on sustainable mineral development and the energy transition through projects that include a copper mine. The two sides welcome Botswana's accession to the Green Minerals International Economic and Trade Cooperation Initiative and say they will keep working on diamonds through channels such as the Kimberley Process and encourage more Botswana diamond products to enter the Chinese market.

For Kenya, the zero-tariff policy Xi cited is already in force. China's State Council Tariff Commission announced on 28 April that China would apply zero tariffs to 53 African countries with diplomatic ties from 1 May 2026, with the period for the 20 countries that are not least developed running to 30 April 2028. An official of the Ministry of Commerce's WTO department said on 29 April, as reported by Xinhua, that Kenya is among those 20, that for them the zero tariff takes the form of a two-year preferential rate, and that the arrangement runs while African countries continue to negotiate economic partnership agreements for shared development with China. Xinhua gave the earlier tariffs on Kenyan coffee as 8 to 30 per cent and on avocados as 20 per cent, with goods needing to meet origin and inspection requirements.

Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Mutahi Kagwe, announced at a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Guo Haiyan that Kenyan tea, coffee, avocados, macadamia nuts, cut flowers, vegetables and herbs would enter China duty-free from 1 May, Capital FM reported on 16 March. Citizen Digital reported on 12 May that the State Department for Trade had announced Kenya's first cargo to China under the arrangement, valued at US$40,000, which arrived at Xiamen port in Fujian province.

Business Daily, reporting on 3 May on data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), said Kenya imported goods worth KSh 671.2 billion from China in 2025, up 16.5 per cent from KSh 576.1 billion in 2024. Exports to China fell 35.7 per cent to KSh 16.9 billion from KSh 26.3 billion. The paper put the deficit at KSh 654.3 billion, a record, and attributed the export drop to titanium ores, mined in Kwale since 2013 and exhausted in 2024, and to a ban by the Agriculture and Food Authority on harvesting and exporting macadamia nuts.

Kenya's Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs has unveiled a draft Minerals, Mining and Beneficiation Policy 2026 for consultation with stakeholders, the Kenya News Agency reported on 1 July. The draft emphasises in-country value addition and mineral processing, and sets a target of lifting mining from about 1 per cent of GDP to 10 per cent by 2030. "Currently, Kenya exports the bulk of its minerals in raw form, fetching low incomes on the international market," Mines Inspector Jeff Muchiri said, as quoted by the agency.