Devirupa Mitra

Lusaka, Jan 6 Botswana's diamonds are of "direct interest" to India, Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari said as he began his three-nation Africa tour on Tuesday.

"Botswana is the world's first or second largest diamond producer. This is of direct interest to us, as we have a large and prosperous diamond cutting industry in Gujarat," Ansari told reporters onboard the Special Aircraft from New Delhi to Lusaka.

Ansari arrived in this Zambian capital on Tuesday on the first leg of his three-nation African tour aimed at renewing old ties with the leadership of these countries. He will also be visiting Malawi and Botswana.

India is the largest importer of uncut diamonds, but most of them are routed through the trading centres of Antwerp. The diamonds are then cut and polished in several industrial clusters, most of them based in Gujarat in western India.

Ansari said that it was a long-standing government policy "to try to get diamonds directly from the source".

"As more and more countries are discovering — direct dealing between seller and buyer is better than the indirect dealing through monopoly organisation in London," he said.

Though Ansari did not name the group, De Beers, the world's largest diamond trading company, has a monopoly of mining and distributing diamonds from Botswana, which accounts for 50 percent of its global trade. The contract with monopoly trading partner De Beers comes into an end in about two years.

Nearly fifth of the total diamonds in the world are mined in Botswana.

Diamond diplomacy had always played a role in India's relations with Botswana. In May 2005, the then Botswana president Festus Mogae had attended the International Diamond Conference as chief guest.