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Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
The high-level visits the country has received from senior officials of foreign governments and heads of various multi-lateral institutions since the beginning of the year are testimony of the success of the engagement and re-engagement policy adopted by President Mnangagwa at the advent of the Second Republic, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Ambassador Frederick Shava has said.
Ambassador Shava said this in an update on the engagement and re-engagement policy to the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
The presentation to the Committee was presented by Ambassador Shava’s Deputy, David Musabayana.
“It is incisive that I make this presentation against the backdrop of heightened activity on the diplomatic front, which our nation has witnessed over the past eight weeks. With the precedence set so far, expect even greater engagements during the course of the year,” he said.
Some of the visits he cited include the reciprocal visit by Belarus President, Alexander Lukashenko, where eight cooperation agreements were signed.
The country also hosted former President of Mozambique, Joachim Chissano and Africa Development Bank (AfDB) President Dr Akinwumi Adesina as part of the Debt Arrears Clearance Programme; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State, Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan; the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General, QU Dongyu; the US’ Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, Ambassador Robert Scott and the Russian Federation’s Regional Minister Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region, Yarin Vyacheslav and his delegation.
Other visits include Canada”s Assistant Deputy Minister of the Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch in Global Affairs, Ms. Patricia Pena while EU member and Baltic State of Latvia also sent its Director-General on Bilateral Relations, Ambassador Nils Jansons.
“All these visits and exchanges are true testimony that Zimbabwe has been re-admitted back into the international community as a result of efforts by the Second Republic,” Ambassador Shava said.
The minister also said his attendance of the second US-Africa Summit was also testimony of improving ties with the US government.
“Despite the positive signs and the existing goodwill and commendable efforts to address this situation, as seen by background engagements being spearheaded, including by local Zimbabwean industrialists and their counterparts in the US, the continued existence of sanctions has been an albatross.
Moreover, despite the US renewing sanctions on Zimbabwe this month, there is consensus on both sides that sanctions are hindering our full potential in terms of bilateral trade and cooperation in other spheres,” he said.
Ambassador Shava expressed satisfaction with the rapid manner relations with the EU were thawing despite the bloc maintaining the remaining sanctions on the Zimbabwe Defence Industry.
“In February this year, the EU bloc launched its ‘Team Europe’, a new rubric under which the 27 countries comprising the bloc will coordinate and consolidate relations with us, this time through Government, and in line with, and in support of our priorities under the NDS1.
“This is the first time that the EU has disbursed directly to Zimbabwe through government structures, departing from the previous unconventional preference for NGOs, as opposed to Government,” he said.
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