‘The chemistry is quite good’ In an interview during President Mnangagwa’s recent tour of the Manhize steel plant, Zanu PF’s Secretary for External Relations Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said only the total and unequivocal removal of the illegal embargo would be accepted by Zimbabwe. The country, he said, was lining itself up for unprecedented growth albeit under the yoke of sanctions.  
Minister Mumbengegwi

Minister Mumbengegwi

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
The two leaders (President Mugabe and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran) had a very good meeting. They actually hit it off very, very well indeed.

They looked at the great potential there is between our two countries for co-operation in a number of areas.

The area of energy, for example, was one area which they discussed. They also looked at the issue of pharmaceuticals. Iran has a very highly developed pharmaceuticals industry and they discussed co-operation in that area.

Iran also has a very highly developed science and technology sector. Again the two leaders discussed how the two countries can co-operate in that area in the context of higher education and our new focus on STEM (Government’s Science, Technology and Mathematics development policy).

So they discussed the parameters of co-operation in that area. They also discussed co-operation in the field of agriculture; where the two countries could co-operate in producing agricultural products which Iran could benefit from.

And so they discussed a fairly wide range of possible areas of co-operation.

The agreements that were arrived at during His Excellency’s last State visit here were interrupted by a number of factors; sanctions among them, as well as economic downturn.

Now the two leaders directed that our Joint Commission should meet as soon as possible in order to rejuvenate and resuscitate, as well as look at new areas of co-operation.

So we are looking at the possibility of convening our Joint Commission later on in the year so that we can follow up on the matters the two leaders have discussed this morning.

(Revival of the Modzone textiles plant and Motira tractor assembly plant are) part of the assignment allocated to the Joint Commission of the two countries; to see how we can be able to map out a more fruitful framework and the modalities of co-operation in order to ensure that the projects which have not gone very well are thoroughly examined to see how we can be able to co-operate in a more productive way in the future.

President Rouhani has been invited (to visit Zimbabwe) and we have no reason to believe that he will not honour the invitation. He was invited yesterday. We don’t see any reason why he should not (visit) because he was quite receptive to the invitation.

The chemistry between the two leaders was excellent. It was very, very good indeed. They got along very well, they are very much on the same wavelength.

It was a very good meeting. They touched on sanctions; how they have affected the two countries and how they are determined to defeat them.

So basically it (the meeting) was a question of how the two countries can intensify co-operation in the various sectors. There is a possibility of further meetings tomorrow, but we are still to confirm that.

Hon Simbarashe Mumbengegwi is Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was speaking to the Zimbabwean media after a bilateral engagement between President Mugabe and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in Tehran yesterday.

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