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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
The invitation extended to President Mnangagwa for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) to be hosted by Britain in Glasgow is a major diplomatic breakthrough by the Second Republic after more than two decades of non-engagement at that high level, Cabinet has said.
Speaking yesterday after a Cabinet meeting, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Government’s engagement and re-engagement policy was bearing fruit.
Besides acting as a boost for the Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement efforts, President Mnangagwa’s visit will also unlock trade opportunities with the Western world, which dovetails with Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
Minister Mutsvangwa said the conference was important in that it brought together more than 200 Heads of State and Government and Zimbabwe will be represented at the highest level in a critical meeting where global issues will take centre stage.
COP26 runs from 31 October to 12 November, 2021.
“This is a major breakthrough of Zimbabwe’s diplomacy during the Second Republic, which is anchored on the engagement and re-engagement policy guided by the mantra “friend to all and enemy to none”, coming as it does after over two decades of non engagement at that level.”
The Second Republic has taken several strides to show its determination to break the barrier of decades long international isolation.
One of its major step was to allow itself to be subjected to international scrutiny after it invited the international community such as the European Union, Commonwealth and other Western countries to observe the 2018 harmonised election.
Only Sadc, African Union and Caribbean and Pacific countries have been observing the polls for the past two decades after it was felt that the Western capitals would not make an objective assessment given that they had imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe after Zimbabwe embarked on land reform to address historical land imbalances.
The President’s visit is also expected to boost Zimbabwe’s chances of making its case to the global community, including the British Foreign Office for the re-admission into the international community particularly the Commonwealth, from which it withdrew in 2003 at the height of a diplomatic tiff between Zimbabwe and Britain.
In 2019, President Mnangagwa met Commonwealth Secretary-General Mrs Patricia Scotland on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly where she expressed satisfaction with the reforms that Zimbabwe was instituting and implementing.
Last month, President Mnangagwa held a meeting with Britain’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mrs Melanie Robinson, where they discussed COP26 and several bilateral issues affecting the two countries.
Of late, Britain has been deporting Zimbabweans with criminal records in that country, a normal process and a sign of shift in policy by London, which has over the years given sanctuary to Zimbabweans but now accepts that the deportees will not be victimised.
The climate-change talks will bring together Heads of State and Government, climate experts and campaigners to agree on a coordinated action to tackle climate change.
The COP26 summit needs to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to minimise the devastating effects of continued global warming.
Britain has been chosen to host the major event together with Italy.
The conference is also to brainstorm the world ’s mitigation measures and adaptation actions against climate change.
This comes as Zimbabwe has done a lot more in carbon sinking through the various afforestation and reforestation programmes and conservation agriculture (Pfumvudza/Intwasa).
The implementation of renewable energy projects in the country and use of more efficient low emission technologies in thermal power plants also reflected Government’s commitment towards reducing emissions.
Online Reporter