Allow me to pay my respects to His Majesty the King Letsie III and Her Majesty the Queen ‘Masenate,

The Right Honourable the Prime Minister, Mr. Ntsokoane Sam Matekane,

The Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ms Nthomeng Majara

The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Mr Lejone Mpotojoane, who co-presides this meeting,

Honourable Ministers of His Majesty’s Government,  and in particular Minister of Finance and Development Planning Retselisitsoe Matlanyane, the Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police Lebona Lephema, the Minister of Trade and Industry Mokhethi Shelile, the Minister of Labour Employment and Public Service, Richard Ramoeletsi, The Minister of Gender, Youth, Sports, Arts, Culture and Social Development, Hon. Pitso Lesaoana,  the Minister of Natural Resources Honourable Mohlomi Moleko, and the Minister in Prime Minister Office, Limpho Tau,

Their Excellencies Heads of Diplomatic missions and members of the diplomatic community,

Senior Government officials

All participants in today’s dialogue, and in particular all the team of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations,

Distinguished guests,

Bo-‘M’e le Bo-Ntate,

It is my great pleasure to co-host for the first time with the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Lejone Mpotojoane, the Lesotho-EU Political Dialogue and to be able to discuss in an open and cooperative spirit the partnership that links not only our respective Governments and institutions but also our people.

I will start by introducing the members of the EU Delegation, composed by the representatives of nine EU Member States from the Embassies in Pretoria and colleagues from the EU Delegation to Lesotho: 

H.E. the Ambassador of Italy Paolo Cuculi and his colleague Luca Pascali, H.E. the Ambassador of Germany Andreas Peschke and his colleague Jan Kluck, H.E. the Ambassador of Finland, Anne Lammila and her colleague Marko Saarinen, H.E. the Ambassador of Belgium Paul Jansen, H.E. Ambassador  Romana Königsbrun, and H.E. Ambassador Vladimir Grácz, who presented copies of their letters of credence to you this week, Deputy heads of Mission Christian Fogelström and Tim Reilly respectively from the Embassies of Sweden and of Ireland,, Ludovic Cocogne and Alexandre Brochard from the Embassy of France,  and my own colleagues David Healy,  Mario Varrenti, Tomas Pallas and Lucas Zimmer.

I am glad that so many colleagues could join us today from Pretoria. I hope that next year we will count on an even larger contingent, once the process of agreement and accreditation of new colleagues will be completed.

I am also encouraged by the presence of a large number of Ministers and senior officials, manifesting the importance that both sides assign to the partnership. Based on my recollection of last year’s participation and the record of previous years this might be the highest level participation ever. I extend to all of you a warm invitation to join us later today at 4 pm in this same venue to celebrate the partnership. You should have received invitations but we could not expect such overwhelming participation so we might have missed some of you.

This dialogue session comes at a very crucial juncture of the democratic life and  development of Lesotho, a few months after peaceful national elections and a few months away from local elections. Hopefully the reform package, whose preparation has involved so many stakeholders and has required so many years of work, will be tabled next week before Parliament. We hope that it will soon be adopted, responding to the expectations of Basotho to re-build their nation on stronger foundations and to enjoy the peace, stability and prosperity that all continue to aspire  to.

It is also a crucial moment as Lesotho look for stronger connections to the world politically and economically, aiming to strengthen international cooperation, to attract more foreign direct investment and to increase and diversify its trade connections.

The programme of today is an extensive one, in itself  a sign of the strong relations between Lesotho and the EU and its Member States.

At a time when conflicts ravage this continent and Europe, this dialogue is a celebration of solidarity, security, peace and sustainable development and prosperity for our citizens and for our future generations, objectives that are at the heart of our bilateral relations with Lesotho and with the African Union. We have also shown very concretely this morning how Team Europe is assisting Lesotho scaling up renewable energy production and supporting the most vulnerable population.

I look forward to a fruitful dialogue and exchange today

Thank you.