On the morning of May 24, 2004, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing held talks at the office building of the Chinese Foreign Ministry with visiting Botswana's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mompati Merafhe. The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations and issues of common interest.

Li said that since the establishment of China-Botswana diplomatic ties, the two sides have been holding mutual respect and treating each other as equals, and bilateral friendly cooperative relations have been developing steadily and smoothly after having gone through tremendous changes in international situations. Li appreciated and thanked the government of Botswana for its adherence to the one-China policy and its valuable support on significant international issues such as human rights, indicating that the Chinese side would like to make joint efforts with Botswana to keep on enhancing personnel exchanges between the two countries and vigorously exploring cooperation in various fields, so as to promote bilateral relations to a higher level. Li also introduced the positive measures taken by the Chinese government as follow-up actions of the Second Ministerial Conference of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (CACF), expressing the belief that the CACF will play an important role in deepening China-Africa cooperation.

Merafhe said that the government of Botswana thanks China for its various assistance. China is Botswana's most reliable friend and the government of Botswana will uphold the one-China policy as always with the hope that Taiwan will return to its motherland at the earliest date possible. He noted that African countries thank China for always standing beside developing countries to safeguard world peace and support the economic development of African countries.

Following the talks, the two foreign ministers exchanged notes on free assistance from the Chinese government to the government of Botswana.