FROM sharing trenches during the protracted struggle for independence, Zimbabwe and Mozambique remain joined at the hip in the fight to decisively defeat the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other global challenges.
Beating back the virus, which once devastated the Southern Africa region, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have tapped into their deep historical background to wage a new war against the pandemic.
Yesterday, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi arrived in the country to attend the official opening of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA 2023) and paid a courtesy call on President Mnangagwa at State House.
In an interview after their closed-door meeting, President Mnangagwa said he had convened yesterday’s meeting with his counterpart before attending ICASA to “break bread”, as is custom whenever brothers meet.
The two Presidents both attended the just ended Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where they also held bilateral meetings.
“We were together yesterday, in fact the last two days in Dubai so everything I had in mind I have already talked to him and everything he had in mind about talking to me we have already exhausted, so whenever brothers meet they break bread in terms of the Bible, so we were breaking bread,” President Mnangagwa told journalists after the meeting.
President Nyusi weighed in saying the two leaders never shy away from deliberating on how best they can continue delivering for their peoples, adding that both Harare and Maputo are committed to ensuring the total eradication of HIV/AIDS.
“Today we are here as you know very well for ICASA, to talk about the health sector and this small meeting was to try to see to that, but always when we are together we have to speak on what to do for our people, the subject today is health for the people of Zimbabwe and people of Mozambique,” he said.
President Mnangagwa was also in Mozambique just over a week ago where he was guest of honour at the commissioning of the refurbished Beira-Machipanda railway line in Manica.
His Mozambican counterpart had extended an invitation when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the recently held inaugural Saudi Arabia-Africa Summit in Riyadh.
Herald
