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Joseph Madzimure
The Interview
Serbia re-opened its embassy in Zimbabwe two years ago, after it had been shut in 2011. The re-opening is yet another score for the Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement diplomatic offensive. Zimpapers Politics Hub Senior Writer, Joseph Madzimure (JM) had an interview with Serbian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Radish Grujic (RG) who detailed the two countries’ relations to date.
JM: Since your country re-opened its embassy in Zimbabwe two years ago, what is the next step?
RG: The most important goal, at this historical moment for both countries, is to further improve the bilateral relations by raising the level of economic cooperation and intensity of institutional communication and focusing on creation of an optimal environment for the common projects and programmes.
Following the current positive development and already expressed readiness on both sides for a visible improvement of relations, and taking into consideration that the last year’s elections were held in both countries and the new Governments were formed, the next step should be the exchange of the ministerial visits and establishment of the institutional channels for direct communication.
JM: Serbia is now issuing visas to Zimbabweans travelling to the European country unlike in the past where travellers would obtain visas in Pretoria, South Africa. What does that mean in terms of diplomatic ties?
RG: It’s the first step towards strengthening ties between Serbia and Zimbabwe. Now Zimbabweans will no longer have to travel to South Africa to obtain a visa, but the process is now being done in Harare.
JM: Which areas of interest do you think Zimbabwe and Serbia can work together?
RG: There are a lot of areas to be taken into consideration, essential for both sides such as agriculture, education, sports, arts and culture, technological cooperation, energy, mining, infrastructure, telecommunications, museum and monument, health, among others
In this context, during the expected exchange of the ministerial visit, two countries can sign the memorandum on diplomatic consultations. The draft of the MOU is almost finalised at expert’s level.
Related to that, another MOU also could be signed between the two Ministries of Agriculture.
That would be of great importance. Serbia is like Zimbabwe, strongly focused on investment in agriculture and has the capacity to initiate projects in the field of crop production and hybrid seeds development here in Zimbabwe.
JM: Serbia is offering scholarships to students in Zimbabwe. Can you shed light on that?
RG: The two nations are also cooperating on education and Serbia has been offering scholarships for students from Zimbabwe. We have a strong commitment on investment in education, new scholarships have already been offered for the Zimbabwean students under the project “World in Serbia”. We have a number of students who have already completed their studies in Serbia who are back in Zimbabwe.
My proposals are to increase the number of students under the Serbian scholarships next year. The main goal in this area is to connect educational institutions from both sides and to deepen cooperation on professional development and education of the professional workers in the economy and services field.
JM: I am taking you back a little bit. What forced you to close your embassy in Harare in 2011?
RG: This was due to budgetary constraints, with both countries bearing the brunt of sanctions. The Second Republic’s stance of being a friend to all and an enemy to none saw Serbia re-opening its embassy in Harare two years ago.
JM: Since your country trained a number of freedom fighters from Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle do you have special areas of bilateral cooperation relating to war veterans?
RG: Special area of bilateral cooperation relating to war veterans is on cards with the possibility to share our experiences, provide help in professional and operational work, with the implementation of common projects, for example – forming an Association of Friends of Serbia inside the war veteran’s structure.
JM: What is the purpose of the Association of Friends of Serbia?
RG: The main goal for the formation of the Association of Zimbabwe- Serbia friendship, is to assist the governmental institutions and economic organisations on both sides, and with special focus on establishing direct connections between two Chambers of Commerce, cities, municipalities and provinces by building the framework for cooperation and exchange of their ideas, citizens and social projects.
JM: What are Serbian national priorities which you think should be supported by bilateral partners?
RG: The issue of our southern province Kosovo and Metohija, and protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty according to the international law and the UN Charter principles. In regards to that, we are appealing to our friends and partners in the international community to keep their position of non-recognition of the unilaterally proclaimed independence by ethnic Albanians.
This topic is still on the table of the UN Security Council. We have to strengthen our multilateral cooperation within the UN system, especially because of the candidacies of both countries for non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in the near future.
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