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THE Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) of 1961 is clear on the non-interference by diplomatic missions of a sending country on the domestic affairs of a receiving state and any act to the contrary is a clear violation of the agreement.

The interference therefore by some diplomatic missions accredited to Zimbabwe on the country’s domestic issues should be condemned as it not only violates the VCDR but also undermines the country’s sovereignty. 

It is also working against the Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement drive which seeks to strengthen already existing relations with other nations while also restoring those that had soured over the years.  

It is sad that instead of turning a new leaf with Zimbabwe in line with the engagement and reengagement drive, some missions are still stuck in their old and retrogressive meddlesome ways.

Writing on his weekly column in the Sunday Mail and Sunday News, President Mnangagwa said lately, there had been attempts at interfering in the country’s internal affairs by some Foreign Missions accredited to our country.

United Nations

“This worrisome propensity is likely to get even more blatant closer to our Harmonised General Elections slated for next year, in 2023. Needless to say, Government frowns upon this brazen effrontery against our sovereignty, which is in clear violation of basic provisions of international law and norms governing inter-state relations,” said the President.

Added the President, “With such eminently clear and unambiguous provisions in the Vienna Convention, and given that in our situation most of the offending States are not just old States, but are founder members of the United Nations, it is hard to resist the conclusion that the gross interference in our domestic affairs is wilful, and certainly spurred by a gross disdain for our sovereignty.

domestic affairs

“One, too, cannot resist the feeling that these brazen acts of interference stem from a mindset formed back in history when our respective destinies intersected through colonial conquest. That era and historical experience may have created attitudes and reflexes of racist condescension, pre-eminence and immunity which have become so deeply ingrained that provisions of the Vienna Convention seem non-binding to them                                                                         anymore.

“We thus have to help these errant Missions to learn to respect us as a free and independent people; indeed, to respect our Sovereignty as a receiving State which is equal to any other, including their own, under the United Nations Charter.”

The offending missions are reminded once again that Zimbabwe is an Independent and sovereign State that should be allowed to run its own affairs without any interference.