Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Ambassador Frederick Shava, took advantage of his visit to Denmark to engage Foreign Ministers from Norway and Algeria, and updated them on developments in Zimbabwe while also inviting investors from those countries to take up local opportunities.
Ambassador Shava is in Denmark for the Nordic-Africa Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting in Copenhagen, which ended yesterday.
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Book NowIn his meeting with Norway Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, Ambassador Shava briefed him on the reasons for the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the West.
“They (West) were agitated because we had taken our land back and thought they should punish us. They (British) sought cooperation from the Americans,” he said. “The Americans had Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the British had Zimbabwe and the land issue.
“So, together they had to join hands. The British said, ‘okay, if you support us to give sanctions to Zimbabwe, we’ll support you on sanctions to Saddam Hussein. So that was the issue.”
Ambassador Shava said after Britain moved out of the European Union, the EU started removing most of the sanctions apart from those on military and military-related issues. “So we now have a good platform with the EU and we have our discussions back home with the EU as a collective. “We are negotiating each time that the remaining bits should also be removed. But individually with individual members of the EU in Zimbabwe, we are developing very strong bilateral relations,” said Ambassador Shava.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Minister Eide said it was good “to meet my counterpart to discuss our long history” he said.
“We have been involved in Zimbabwe since its very beginning. So we discussed some common experiences from the struggle for liberation and we discussed our current relations,” he said.
Minister Eide said he assured Ambassador Shava that the more Zimbabwe improves the business environment, “the more Norwegian investors will be interested in coming into the country”.
“Zimbabwe is a country with a very rich potential, and many of our businesses would be interested in being more present, but of course they look into the business environment.
“So that’s one of the things we discussed, and then we also had the chance to have an interesting tour of regional relations in Southern Africa,” said Minister Eide.
After that, Ambassador Shava engaged Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, and the two discussed issues around bilateral and economic relations between the two countries.
Said Minister Attaf after the meeting: “I can tell you that we are highly appreciative of the pace of improvement and strengthening, deepening of our bilateral relations.
“Really, with our two Presidents, the bilateral relations are really in safe hands.”
Since the coming in of the Second Republic in 2018, President Mnangagwa has emphasised on economic diplomacy, with all of the country’s representatives expected to attract investments into the country under the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra.
In addition, President Mnangagwa has declared that “Zimbabwe is a friend to all and enemy to none”, a foreign policy stance that has helped improve relations between Harare and the rest of the world, especially those Western countries that imposed sanctions on the country.
Herald
