President Putin And ED Mnangagwa In Closed Door Talks

Mr. Putin talks with President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa in Moscow 15/01/2018 During the talks, the participants discussed ...

Mr. Putin talks with President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa in Moscow 15/01/2018

During the talks, the participants discussed matters pertaining to promoting bilateral relations and current international and regional issues concerning to security and other matters. Following the consultations, and an exchange of documents signed during the official visit of the President of Zimbabwe to Russia took place in the presence of the leaders of the two countries. The signed documents included an agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Zimbabwe on extradition and an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of intellectual activity results and intellectual property protection in the course of bilateral military-technical cooperation. The signed documents also concern cooperation in the sphere of countering the legalisation (money laundering) of criminally obtained proceeds and the financing of terrorism, the two leaders also discussed about the project for developing the Darwendale platinum group metal deposit and the supply of fertilizers to African markets.

The meeting held at the Kremlin in Moscow between two parties discussing mutual interests.

Vladimir Putin said ''I am pleased to see you here in Moscow. This is your first visit to our country, Zimbabwe is an important partner to Russia in Africa, we are very pleased to see you''. Most recently, you won a landslide election victory. The people of your country are expecting effective performance. For our part, we are ready to do our best to make sure that the cooperation between our countries is beneficial for our nations and that it makes a significant and weighty contribution to implementing the plans and programmes that you have formulated for yourself and to achieving the goals that you have set for your country. Welcome, Mr President! President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa!


 Mnangagwa responded with ovation to President Putin, stated that ''on my own behalf and the behalf of Zimbabwean delegation, we are extremely happy to be invited to visit the Russian Federation. And it is my first occasion to be here, and I feel greatly honoured by your Excellency to allow me to visit you in this time of development and the challenges facing my country that I wish to discuss with your Excellency. There are two areas of significant importance for me to address, the historical and the political signs that there is a very long history of cooperation between Zimbabwe and your great country, from the time of armed struggle, when most of my officers and military trained here in the past, and you supported us materially in our liberation struggle. That political history transcended until we got our independence and has continued, but today, your Excellency, I would wish that we now attend to deepening economic cooperation between our countries, and our country is developing – it is a third-world country – so that you, as a senior brother, can hold my hand as I try to develop Zimbabwe.

 Your Excellency, President of Russian Federation, when we last met in Johannesburg at the BRICS Summit 2018, we did not have much opportunity to exchange views on our respective relations, but I believe this is an opportunity that is given to me to articulate the challenges that my country is facing now. Zimbabwe has been suffering from sanctions imposed by the West for nearly two decades, and we are now doing our best to reengage after the new disposition has come into effect; and during our days of isolation, you stood by us. Your Excellency, I have come with many issues I would want to discuss with Your Excellency, in particular, in the area of economic cooperation, because the area of political relations is solid and is very historical. And I have a team of my officers here that I believe will be able to articulate the issues that I have brought for us to share.

The visit to Russia came as an urgent move on Tuesday amid turmoil in Zimbabwe as a result of economical crisis caused by several decades of illegal sanction imposed on Zimbabweans by the western countries that left the country's economy vaporized. Many Zimbabweans are protests against fuel hikes in which five people were already killed.