Story by Oleen Ndori, Foreign Editor
The First Session of the Zimbabwe – European Union Partnership under the Samoa Agreement was held in Harare this Thursday, with deliberations focusing on enhancing ties for mutual benefit.
The deliberations also focused on issues of global geopolitics, climate change, investment and sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, as well as seeking ways of enhancing dialogue between Zimbabwe and the European Union.
Briefing journalists after the closed-door meeting, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ambassador Albert Chimbindi said the hope is that Zimbabwe can find a way to affirm, engage and re-engage with the European Union.
“The main point that we emphasized is that Zimbabwe and the EU have to get back to the relationship that we had before we created the challenges that we are facing. Issue of what they call restrictions, but we call sanctions. And that we are going to deal with a lot of issues that have happened over the years. We can’t keep where we have been. So we elaborated areas where we can easily co-initiate and where we can easily cooperate. We have, as the chair, presented our priorities to the EU, areas where we want to co-initiate in the assistance of international cooperation partners,” he said.
European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Jobst von Kirchmann says the EU Bloc is interested in increasing trade with Zimbabwe. He also said they also discussed the issues of the remaining sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.
He said, “We touched on the international agenda, the conflicts in the world, the conflicts in the region, we talked a lot about trade and investment, the EU has an agreement with Zimbabwe, probably we could make more use of that. We want more investment, Zimbabwe also wants that, so what can we do to have more investment? Zimbabwe raised the issue of remaining restricted measures with us, we discussed that topic, we talked about climate change. Again, we can see that we are together, and we have a lot of efforts to deal with the drought, which is in Zimbabwe and the neighboring countries. I think the EU has created a portfolio of almost a billion dollars in projects in this country with development cooperation, how we cooperate, how we get it right, and how we work together.”
The Samoa Agreement has ushered in a new framework of co-operation between the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and the Pacific States (OACPS) countries, offering prospects for constructive engagement in various areas, to foster sustainable development for mutual benefit.
