Kenya’s Ambassador-designate to China Willy Bett presented his letter of credence to President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.
Ambassador Bett was among 42 other envoys who presented their credentials at the Great Hall of the People.Â
They are Tan Hai Chuan (Singapore), Massimo Ambrosetti (Italy), Hussain Alhammadi (UAE), Michael Campbell (Nicaragua), Pavlo Riabikin (Ukraine), Mohsen Bakhtiar (Iran), Ian J. Marshall (Grenada), Adel Elarbi (Tunisia), Alberto Blanco Silva (Cuba), Bruno Angelet (Belgium), Iven Zyuulu (Zambia), Per Augustsson (Sweden), Sinisa Berjan (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Jakub Kumoch (Poland), Jasem Ibrahem Alnajem (Kuwait), Mauricio Epkua Obama (Equatorial Guinea) and Roland Reiland ( Luxembourg).
Other are Maria Soledad Cordova (Ecuador), Salvador Moncada (Honduras), Bunyad Huseynov (Azerbaijan), Khamis M Omar (Tanzania), Alfredo Ortuño Victory (Costa Rica), Arthur Williams (Jamaica), Kaid Slimane Lahcene (Algeria), Dan-Horia Maxim (Romania), Norman Bin Muhamad (Malaysia), Khalil Ur Rahman Hashimi (Pakistan), Abu Bakarr Karim (Sierra Leone), Loro Da Silva Horta (Timor-Leste), Charviakou Aliaksandr (Belarus), Asadullah Bilal Karimi (Afghanistan), Somphone Sichaleune (Laos), Hugo Siles (Bolivia), Kanasugi Kenji (Japan), Andrey Tehov (Bulgaria), Barrett Salato (Solomon Islands), Robert Lee (Fiji), Daouda Bitie (Burkina Faso), Martin Tomco (the Czech Republic), Scott Dewar (Australia) and Vahe Gevorgyan from Armenia.
President Xi told the ambassadors that China values its friendship with peoples of their countries, and is willing to expand mutual cooperation with them to promote the development of bilateral ties.
Xi said he hopes the diplomats will have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of China and act as a bridge between China and their countries, even as he pledged to provide convenience and support for them to perform their duties.
Ambassador Bett, who was until his posting to Beijing the High Commissioner to India, replaced Mary Muthoni, who was recalled in February 2023Â only having started her tour of duty in June 2022.Â
Bett arrived in Beijing in October just in time for the Third Belt and Road Forum. On October 12, he presented copies of his credentials to Hong Lei, Director General Protocol Department of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He also met a group of African diplomats, who welcomed him to Beijing.
Among his first assignments was to accompany President William Ruto during his bilateral talks with President Xi on the sidelines of the BRI Forum on October 18, 2023.
Between January 24-26, he hosted Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi, who was in China for an official visit on invitation by his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
With the presentation of the credentials to President Xi, Ambassador Bett, a former Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, now has full credence to represent President Ruto’s agenda in Beijing, as he seeks to promote bilateral trade.
During the bilateral talks in October, President Xi said Kenya is welcome to “make full use of trade promotion initiatives and platforms such as the “green channel” for African agricultural product exports to China, share in China’s market and the dividends of China’s opening up, and increase the export of high-quality products of Kenyan features to China”.
And ahead of the posting of the new envoys, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in December said their performance will be determined by the increase in the volume of trade between Kenya and their host states.
“Wherever you go, in the first year, go and study the volume of our exports to that country and within a year, there must be a shift … If you go there and you don’t increase volume of trade, you have no business being there at all. There must be a positive achievement after you report. You must be able to account for you being there – opening markets, enlarging the existing ones,” DP Gachagua said.Â
He also said the Kenya Kwanza Administration is re-engineering Kenya’s diplomatic priorities and architecture to focus more on commercial diplomacy as opposed to “the traditional way of diplomacy”.Â
When Bett arrived in New Delhi early 2018, Kenya’s total exports to India amounted to $91 million, but reduced to $67.21 million by 2022, partly attributable to Covid-19 trade disruptions.
It is, however, during his tour of duty that Kenya started exporting avocado to India in September 2023, a year after the first shipment to China.
