Latvia delegation in historic visit

Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent

A delegation from Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by the director-general in the bilateral relations department Ambassador Nils Jansons, is expected in the country tomorrow.

Latavia is a republic on the south east coast of the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania.

The development continues to show the successes of President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement policy and the ‘Zimbabwe is open business’ mantra.

It comes a few weeks after Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko visited Zimbabwe on a three-day State visit, the first such visit to a Sub-Saharan African country.

The Latvian delegation will be in Zimbabwe on a four-day visit, in which they are expected to create bilateral relations with Harare.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ministry spokesperson Mr Livit Mugejo said the visit was historic.

“The purpose of the visit is to hold diplomatic consultations with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and other senior Government officials and deepen relations with Zimbabwe,” he said.

The visit by the Latvia delegation comes as a business delegation from the Sverdlovsk Region of Russia also visited Zimbabwe this week to explore areas of economic cooperation.

The Russian delegation held meetings with the Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza and captains of industry as part of efforts to discuss potential areas of economic cooperation between Zimbabwe and the Sverdlovsk Region.

The meetings were also attended by the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Midlands Province Larry Mavima, since the two nations intend to establish a twinning arrangement between the Midlands Province and the Sverdlovsk Region of Russia.

The delegation also toured industrial sites specialising in machinery and equipment for timber processing, the production of rubber and pharmaceutical substances.

A roundtable business discussion was held as Zimbabwe and the Russian Federation broadened their cooperation on account of the existing excellent political relations.