President meets UK ambassador

Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
THE British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson, yesterday visited President Mnangagwa at State House in Harare to make arrangements for his trip to the European country for the Coronation Ceremony of King Charles III.

While Zimbabwe has been isolated from the Western world for more than two decades owing largely to the land reform programme, which restored land back to its rightful owners, the country has managed to turn a new page owing to the President’s thrust of “friend to all, enemy to none”.

Relations with countries like the United Kingdom and the United States are now thawing, with President Mnangagwa set to visit the UK in early May for the coronation of King Charles III.

The coronation of King Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen consort of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey.

The imminent visit would be President Mnangagwa’s first visit to the United Kingdom since he came into power in 2017.

Ambassador Robinson spoke to the media after meeting the President and said the two discussed arrangements for the coronation ceremony of King Charles III.

“I had a good meeting with the President of Zimbabwe. I had the opportunity to talk to him about arrangements for the coronation of His Majesty the King to which the President has been invited and he told me that he had accepted that invitation, so he will be travelling to London for that,” she said.

Ambassador Robinson said the two also spoke about her country exhibiting at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and the forthcoming elections among other issues.

“We also discussed trade and investment, including recent investments by a UK company NMS in clinics and hospitals here and I talked about the UK going to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in a couple of weeks’ time in Bulawayo,” she said.

“We also had the opportunity to discuss the elections and the President committed them to be free, fair, peaceful and transparent which I welcomed and a range of other issues of mutual interest to our countries.”

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died last year on September 8 at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

She died peacefully on a Thursday afternoon at her Scottish estate, where she had spent much of the summer.

The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change.

President Mnangagwa has said his administration’s engagement and re-engagement efforts continue to bear fruit as evidenced by the partial removal of illegal sanctions by the European Union.

Last year, Harare was for the first time, invited to the United States-Africa summit. With regards to re-joining the Commonwealth, Zimbabwe is waiting for the release of the November 2022 Commonwealth assessment mission report and remained optimistic about positive outcomes.