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President Mugabe bids farewell to his Equatorial Guinea counterpart President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo at Harare International Airport yesterday. President Mbasogo was in Harare on a three-day working visit

Harare Bureau
Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo left Harare for his country yesterday afternoon after a three-day working visit here. President Mbasogo who arrived in Harare on Friday evening was here to meet President Mugabe who is also the African Union chairperson ahead of the 26th African Union Heads of State and Government Summit that will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, next weekend.

The two leaders shared notes on several issues but top on the agenda was the AU Summit.

President Mugabe, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, senior government officials and service chiefs were at the Harare International Airport to bid President Mbasogo and his delegation farewell.

Speaking to the media after a closed door meeting at State House on Saturday, President Mugabe expressed concern over negative reporting on African issues by journalists including those from this continent.

He said journalists had the tendency to ignore progressive accounts happening in Africa.

“And of course we also feel that our journalists should report us better than they’ve been doing all along, including yourselves. Report the good things that Africa is doing,” he said, adding: “There are many (positives), including football.”

President Mugabe said a major issue discussed during talks with President Mbasogo was the reform of the United Nations Security Council in addition to matters relating to the forthcoming AU Summit.

“So, on the eve of the meeting of the Africa Union, we saw it fit to discuss what our positions would be in regards to various matters: The issue of the reform of the Security Council and what our position as Africa should be; and that’s what we would want to discuss also with others at the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa.”

President Mugabe said there were on-going consultations to ensure consensus on reforms to the Security Council.

In his remarks, President Mbasogo hailed President Mugabe as a man of “sound knowledge”

“Whenever I come here to visit my brother, I actually come to nourish myself mentally. He has very good and sound knowledge. He is one of the last real Pan Africanist left on the continent and these are the type of people we need.”

Both leaders said they had also deliberated on ways to enhance the strong Zimbabwe-Equatorial Guinea bilateral relations.

Relations between the two countries scaled to greater heights in 2004 after Zimbabwe intercepted a group of mercenaries that wanted to overthrow President Mbasogo’s government following discovery of vast oil deposits.

The strong relations between the two countries has also seen Zimbabwe training security officials from Equatorial Guinea.

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces last November deployed a training contingent to the Equatorial Guinea to train that country’s military officers on operational and logistic matters following an urgent request by the West African country.

The ZDF also deployed military personnel to provide security at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in January last year.