Online Reporter
SINCE assuming office and initiating the policies of the Second Republic, President Mnangagwa has paid a great deal of attention to foreign affairs, seeing diplomacy as a positive and creative way of improving ties and at least ensuring that inevitable disagreements are well managed.
One of the first changes was renaming the Foreign Ministry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Zimbabwe’s own diplomats sent abroad were expected to become a lot more involved, with their remit widened in practical terms to both seeking more open markets with their host governments, but also, and equally importantly, building contacts and confidence with business people.
In many ways they were to be the front end of the new pro-investment and pro-business environment being created back in Zimbabwe.
At the same time, the President moved away from megaphone diplomacy, where disagreements were heavily publicised and constructive measures difficult to find in the noise.
Rather he wanted a lot more positive contact, starting with what could be agreed and building from there.
This involved both Zimbabwe’s ambassadors abroad and far greater involvement with those sent here.
Last week, he stressed again this need for diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe to be assured that their contacts with the Government should and could be good, and were considered important.
He hosted, as he has done every year, a public reception for diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe. Although most of the hard detailed work is done by diplomats with the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ministry, the President’s door is always open.
We have seen major investors to Zimbabwe, and those likely to invest, meeting the President personally.
He usually makes sure on foreign trips to include contact with both the business community and the Zimbabwean diaspora in cities he visits.
He has been called the Chief Diplomat, but as the person who issued the letters of credence to Zimbabwean ambassadors assigned out of the country, and is the person who must receive the corresponding letters of credence from those coming in, he is already in the diplomatic loop, and among his responsibilities sees that loop as important.
This solid and unflashy diplomatic drive has seen many improvements in Zimbabwe’s position. The sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union after the land reform programme have been gradually reduced.
The EU was the first to respond to the new diplomacy by letting the sanctions it and member states imposed to be eroded away until the formal lifting of the last of them recently.
The remaining arms embargo is hardly a divisive issue.
Even the US has seen the practical lifting of most sanctions, and even moves in Congress to repeal the ZDERA law that allows sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Neither set of improvements just happened. They are the result of a long and persistent hard slog, often behind the scenes, that built up relations, helped establish confidence and generally made their maintenance less important.
The same goes for Zimbabwe’s regional standing. Again the successes have been and are being seen as Zimbabwe goes out of its way to be useful and helpful for the practical purpose of ensuring that the region and continent play a more active part in their own development.
As Southern Africa becomes richer so does Zimbabwe, and this is more assured if it is good buddies with the neighbours.
Ambassadors sent to Zimbabwe once tended to have to gather most of their information from opposition sources. Now they can get at least the Government views rather easily and so Zimbabwe gets a decent hearing. That is important.
Obviously there will be disagreements at times, even among close friends, but when these are discussed and explored quietly and rationally, they cause a lot less damage and at least everyone can make their stand known without having to stand on a mountain with a megaphone, which just makes things much harder to fix when they need to be fixed.
Ambassadors are historically very important people. Modern communications might have taken in some of their old functions, but they can now spend more time on establishing ties and making sure they understand what is going on in the country where they have been sent, and can represent their own country more effectively in turn.
President Mnangagwa’s diplomatic success, based on his original mantra for the policy of Friend to All, Enemy to None, has been steadily accumulating its successes over the years, and in the end making life easier for Zimbabweans, which is after all what it is there for in the first place.
