‘President Mbasogo visit a great success’

EQUATORIAL Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s two-day state visit was a “great success”, as relations between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea have reached new levels, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Professor Amon Murwira has said.

President Mbasogo’s visit saw Harare and Ciudad de la Paz undertake their first Joint Commission of Cooperation, where the two countries signed four bilateral agreements.

Speaking to Zimpapers and ZBC shortly after the Equatorial Guinea President’s departure on Friday, Prof Murwira said the four agreements form part of 12 deals currently being negotiated between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

“You know, this was the first JCC, which is the Joint Commission of Cooperation.

“This was the first between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, so that’s an important point to note.

“It was a great success, they said it was a success, we say it is a success, therefore success plus success is equal to success,” he said.

Prof Murwira said the agreements reached during the visit were designed to deepen relations across political, diplomatic, economic and social areas, noting that political and diplomatic engagement formed the “first layer” of the relationship and creates the environment for trade and investment cooperation.

He said the first agreement covered diplomatic and political relations, while additional instruments focused on economic and trade cooperation, education, science, technology, innovation and culture, as well as rules of procedure that define how the two countries will run and monitor their cooperation.

The signed Memoranda of Understanding cover Education, Economic and Trade Cooperation, Cooperation in the training of interpreters and translators, and Rules of Procedure of the Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC)

“This is a structured relationship between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

“His Excellency President Dr ED Mnangagwa is pushing for structured relationships.

“Structured relationships are good in that you are able to monitor sector by sector what is going on,” said the Foreign Minister.

Prof Murwira said the agreements also fall under the broader work programme of deals currently being negotiated between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, including further discussions in areas such as immigration and other forms of economic interaction, and continued cooperation on tourism.

“So basically in line with our economic diplomacy thrust, as well as our peace and security thrust, you can see these are being covered in our agreements and the meeting went very well between their excellencies and the agreements are just part of the 12 that we are negotiating.

“We are negotiating more again on immigration and other areas of economic interaction.

“We already have an MoU on tourism, whereby we are talking about shared destinations, shared marketing and so forth and so on,” he said.

The Foreign Minister said implementation will be tracked through a Mid-Term Review mechanism, through which the two sides will assess progress and determine how far cooperation is translating into practical outcomes for both countries.

“Their excellencies are asking about implementation, our monitoring mechanism is a mid-term review to see how far we have moved in terms of implementation and their excellencies are then able to see whether we are moving, because we just don’t want to sign for signing sake, because you know international trade is very important and international trade happens when we have established relations.

“I will always say international trade happens when there are two partners that trust each other and we believe that this is important,” he said.

Prof Murwira said Zimbabwe’s export receipts have grown under President Mnangagwa’s economic diplomacy thrust, citing an increase from about US$2 billion in 2017 to US$16 billion in 2025, and said his ministry expects trade figures to rise further as cooperation expands with Equatorial Guinea, which is petroleum rich.

“We expect, as we relate with countries like Equatorial Guinea, which are petroleum-rich and so forth, trade figures to grow even more between ourselves,” he said.