Mugabe doesn't want to visit Europe

Speaking during the presentation of credentials by the new French Ambassador at State House in Harare on Thursday, President Robert Mugabe said he does not want to visit Europe but wants Zimbabwe to trade with Europe.
 
"We must look at the future and the need for sanctions to go. We don't want to visit Paris, I don't want your girls, I don't want to visit for romantic purposes. But I want to develop relations between us. We want sanctions to be removed so that we can export beef, flowers and other greens," he told the new French ambassador, Mr Laurent Delahouse when he presented his credentials.

Mugabe spoke as the European Union's Harare office has urged Brussels to give the new Zanu-PF government time to make clear its policy direction before deciding whether to lift sanctions and normalise relations with the country.
 
"We have already told our head office not to take a tough stance on this new administration, because it is too early for us to judge them," a top envoy with the EU delegation to Harare told local on Wednesday, asking not to be named.

"We are closely monitoring them and we believe after two months we would have seen their plan of running the country."
 
Mugabe said yesterday sanctions imposed by Britain and her European Union (EU) allies are impeding economic relations between Zimbabwe and the 27-member block.

Sources close to the meeting held between President Mugabe and Mr Delahouse said the President made it clear that his demand for the removal of sanctions does not relate to individuals but to the country's economic interaction as they affect the marketing of Zimbabwe's mineral wealth, agricultural and horticultural produce and the acquisition of machinery for the country's economic development.

Mugabe said France's continued cooperation in the provision of humanitarian assistance and its support in the provision of energy through the Batoka Gorge Hydro Power Project are an expression of France's willingness to reengage Zimbabwe despite the sanctions.

The President also clarified the issue of bilateral investment protection and promotion agreements, saying the agreements do not disallow land acquisition under the land reform programme but such investments can be negotiated and quickly compensated if the land is acquired.

President Mugabe expressed optimism in future French-Zimbabwe relations saying: "In the same meeting, President Mugabe lamented Britain's ill-will against Zimbabwe and how the British media continues to fan hostility and said that makes it difficult for the British government to find a re-engagement strategy.

The French Ambassador said the sanctions are under a review process which is going in a positive direction and cited the recent delisting of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC).

Mugabe then explained that the removal of sanctions on the ZMDC was for the benefit of Belgium and the whole EU block and not necessarily for Zimbabwe.

The French Ambassador admitted that more and more members of the EU are beginning to side with Zimbabwe that the land dispute which they were mobilised into was a purely bilateral dispute between the Southern African country and Britain.

"We now need a new strategy to view Zimbabwe outside sanctions. But it will take a long time, it takes two to tango," said Ambassador Delahouse.

Mr Delahouse pronounced clearly that his country has no problem with the indigenisation policy, saying it is the only way of underpinning stability in Zimbabwe, adding that he wants to engage Zimbabwe as a friend.

In the same meeting, President Mugabe questioned the way Europe is behaving towards African nations where it takes every opportunity to interfere and meddle in African affairs yet international law say that all nations, big and small, are equal according to the UN Charter.

He accused them of imposing their own standards, saying the continent which has its own culture and standards is heading for conflict with Europe.