Zimpapers Logo

Mukachana Hanyani
Recently, the country witnessed a hive of diplomatic activity, welcoming two important guests from the once antagonising powers during the Cold War era — the United States’ Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, Ambassador Robert Scott and a Russian business delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region of the Russian Federation, Yarin Vyacheslav.

Although the guests visited the country with different agendas, their trips were as a result of the New Dispensation’s diplomatic trajectory.

The New Dispensation’s foreign policy regards Zimbabwe as a friend to all and an enemy of none.

It is this unprecedented policy shift that enabled the American envoy to travel to Zimbabwe despite his country’s unfair and illegal sanctions against innocent Zimbabweans for repossessing their own land.

The fact that Zimbabwe welcomed the American official with open arms is a demonstration that the country bears no ill will towards other countries, including those which have classified the country as an enemy.

The new foreign policy dovetails with its engagement and re-engagement thrust and its bid to woo more foreign investment under the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra.

For that reason, the country has welcomed new investors who wish to take advantage of the business opportunities in the country in areas such as mining, agriculture and manufacturing.

The New Dispensation’s embracing of the friend to all and an enemy to none mantra opened floodgates of visitors coming from all corners of the world.

This is why the past week saw the simultaneous visits by the two important western and eastern diplomats in the country.

As to be expected, Ambassador Scott declared that his visit to Zimbabwe was to influence the forthcoming harmonised elections.

He made it clear on his arrival that he was going to engage with Government, civil society and other actors in the political and socio-economic areas.

As for what he meant, ambassador Scott accomplished his visit to the country by fulfilling his agenda of meeting his preferred hosts who among others came from Government, civil society organisations and political actors in the country.

While the US ambassador came on elections business, the Russian delegation came with economic development ideas for the benefit of Zimbabweans and Russians.

This amply showed how different the West is to the East.

Russians sought the mutual benefit of the two countries in the same way that they assisted Zimbabweans to fight colonialism back in the 1960s and the 1970s at a time that the US was assisting the late Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith, to sidestep the economic sanctions which had been imposed on his regime.

The visit demonstrated to the world the opposing intentions of the East and the West in their engagement with Zimbabwe.

Since time immemorial, the Eastern bloc has always been about ensuring that developing countries enjoy their sovereignties while the West is all over the globe trying to impose their puppets and will on developing nations.

This is what Zimbabwe witnessed in this past week.

While a visit from another country to discuss elections seems to be of no consequence diplomatically, a visitor from the West, especially from the US, which has officially categorised an innocent Zimbabwe as an adversary, raised the eyebrows of many.

It is a public secret that Ambassador Scott’s brief was to establish how his country can use its vast financial resources to kit out the Nelson Chamisa-led Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in its bid to unseat Zanu PF.

The US diplomat brought with him a bag full of initiatives to influence the forthcoming harmonised elections and nothing of economic value.

Zimbabwe has been under economic sanctions imposed by his country for the past two decades and Zimbabweans would appreciate his visit to the country if he had travelled to announce their removal.

Instead of doing that, the US government extended the same economic sanctions on the country during the same week so that people continue to suffer ahead of harmonised elections.

This move is meant to ensure people continue to suffer socio-economically so that the opposition can benefit from the resultant anger against Government through protest votes.

This would cast the opposition as a socio-economic saviour of the people.

Fortunately, the electorate is not that stupid.

The urban electorate has given the opposition a chance to run their spaces, but the Western-sponsored opposition has squandered the opportunity for the past 22 years and punished urban residents by not delivering basic services as the reward for voting for the CCC, the MDC Alliance and their various previous factions and formations.

On the other hand, the Russian business delegation led by Minister Yarin, which had nothing to do with influencing the political situation in the country, but economic development, brought a bag full of economic developmental issues.

For that reason, the delegation had fruitful meetings with business people in the country meant to explore economic opportunities in Zimbabwe and how the two countries could benefit from their decades-long relationship.

The Russian delegation made it clear that their mission in the country was to explore business opportunities, while at the same time marketing the already existing business co-operations between Zimbabwe and Russia.

In line with the Russian delegation’s agenda, Mr Yarin had meetings with Government ministers and captains of industry to create economic relations between the two countries.

Before the conclusion of his visit to Zimbabwe, Mr Yarin and his delegation had a meeting with Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Larry Mavhima, where the twinning arrangement between Midlands region and Sverdlock region was discussed and arranged.

The recent visits by Ambassador Scott and Minister Yarin has shown that the west and the east will never share anything in common.

The visits showed that the West prioritises political interferences in host countries, while the East would be busy looking for economic opportunities in host countries.

The visits by the two officials and main reasons for their trips silently spoke why most countries are naturally comfortable with aligning with the East more than the West. The West pushes a meddlesome kind of diplomacy, while the East respects other nations’ sovereignty to the extent of assisting them in their fight for self-determination.

It is for these reasons that the West’s opposition projects on the continent always lose elections.

State power is earned from the electorate and voters cannot reward locals who partner with foreigners to punish them for taking back their own inheritance — their land. It is for this reason that the CCC and other like-minded opposition outfits are glaring at another dizzying defeat at the hands of Zanu PF this year.